Bruins’ secondary overcomes early season struggles

UCLA’s pass defense faced arguably the toughest four-game stretch of any team in the nation over the past month.

In the last four games, UCLA has faced the nation’s No. 16 passing offense in Oregon, the No. 4 passing offense in Cal, the No. 17 passing offense in Colorado and the No. 10 passing offense in Arizona.

During each matchup, the Bruins surrendered fewer passing yards than their opponents’ season average.

For a unit that received some criticism early in the season for yielding standout passing performances to less prolific passing offenses in Virginia and Memphis, UCLA’s secondary has turned it around at the right time.

Sophomore safety Tahaan Goodman pointed to confidence as a primary factor in UCLA’s recent success against the pass.

“I feel like we’ve been working hard on our weaknesses and everything,” Goodman said. “And we showed what was bad in other games so since then … we’ve been getting better every week.”

UCLA’s improved pass defense seems to correspond with redshirt senior safety Anthony Jefferson’s move to corner against Arizona State in game four. The Bruins gave up 488 passing yards that game, but since then, with Jefferson oscillating between corner and safety, depending on the matchup, the secondary has been stout.

Jefferson’s initial move was partially prompted by UCLA officially losing junior safety Randall Goforth for the season after the Texas game. Without Goforth, arguably the secondary’s best player, the Bruins’ defensive backfield seemed destined for a drop off in production.

Initially, four of the top six players in the Bruins’ defensive back rotation were young and relatively inexperienced. Junior cornerback Fabian Moreau only began playing the position in college, Goodman and freshman defensive back Jaleel Wadood were both young to the safety position and redshirt sophomore cornerback Marcus Rios spent much of last season in the hospital instead of on the practice field.

All of those players have been coming into their own recently. Wadood is already fifth on the team in tackles as just a freshman. Rios made the game-saving interception against Cal and had another pick against Colorado. Moreau has bounced back strong from his early season struggles and Goodman’s physical presence has proven imposing to opposing receivers.

Against Arizona, Goodman delivered a crushing tackle on an unsuspecting receiver, which left the receiver slow to get up. Jefferson quickly noticed a difference in how Arizona receivers ran their routes after that play, more wary of a possible big hit awaiting them.

“(Goodman) was an enforcer last week so … (when the Arizona receivers) were coming across the middle, they got big bug eyes and crocodile arms,” Jefferson said.

Meanwhile, Moreau, who coach Jim Mora called a potential All-American and first-round NFL draft pick before the season, has finally shown glimpses of why he earned that praise. After a rough start to the year, having given up several touchdowns to the receiver he was covering, Moreau’s recently improved play has also come with an uptick in confidence, which his coaches and teammates have noticed.

“That’s kinda how it is with corners sometimes,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. “You start having some success, you start winning consistently and you get that swagger back and I definitely think he’s definitely got his confidence back and definitely think he’s playing at a very high level.”

The same can be said for the entire secondary.