In Reply to: Lynn is worth every penny posted by Starbucks on September 01, 2024 at 22:06:23
They have eight new starters, mostly transfers. That's where the money they spent on NIL, not coaching, paid off. Kamari Ramsey led them with nine tackles. Where was he last year?
They also had zero sacks and only two TFL's. Last year Lynn's defense always had many. Could that have been due to Latu. Muasau and the twins? They sure made Lynn look good.
They allowed 4.5 yards per rush against LSU. Not that much different from their average last season (4.8). They also allowed 8.0 yards per passing attempt. Last season 7.7. This against a QB with one career start.
Last season the defense was terrible because they gave up a ton of points ranking #117 in the nation. So it's not that difficult to improve. Nowhere to go but up.
Meanwhile, what's lost in UCLA's generally poor performance against Hawaii was the fact that the defense was quite good. Five sacks, eleven TFL's and two picks. They also made great halftime adjustments, something they didn't always do last season, completely shutting down Hawaii in the 2nd half. Now one could say the competition wasn't that strong, but we also don't have anywhere near the talent on defense we had last season. In other words, we didn't miss Lynn at all. When the opponents become stronger, we'll miss Latu, et al. a lot more than Lynn.