This post was updated Oct. 1 at 9:55 p.m.

It’s a tale as old as time.

A team tries something new, something fresh, something to turn it all around.

The subject of the Bruins’ change is their defense, and the timeline is just shy of 12 months.

Four games into 2023, UCLA football has gone from the No. 92 defense in the country at the end of 2022 to a squad ranked within the top 10 of Division I defenses. The position group, led by senior defensive lineman Laiatu Latu on the stat sheet, has added a new defensive coordinator to present a new side of the Bruins’ end zone protection.

One major shift in the landscape of UCLA’s defensive group is the introduction of defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, who comes to the program after one year as a safeties coach for the Baltimore Ravens and a slew of other positions with professional football programs. Statistically, UCLA appears to be a different team defensively since his arrival.

One year ago, the Bruins gave up an average of 29 points and 403.3 total yards per game. Now, the team is holding its opponents to an average of 11 points and 263.8 yards per game in the same categories.

Last Saturday, when UCLA was clinging to an attempt to dethrone the reigning Pac-12 champions in the respective programs’ first conference matchups of the 2023 campaign, the Bruins limited the Utes to 14 points – seven of which came as a result of a pick-six. Prior to that night, Utah averaged 25 points per game, and last season, 38.6.

After UCLA’s loss to Utah, coach Chip Kelly said he trusted his defense late in the game to get its sixth stop of the half and grant the offense one final opportunity to score.

“I thought our defense did a really nice job,” Kelly said. “That’s one of the reasons we kicked the ball deep with 3:39 to go. Plenty of time for us to try to put something together. We didn’t, offensively, but that’s the faith we had in our defensive talent.”

Even though the Bruins lost the matchup 14-7, their offensive woes were what resulted in half of their opponent’s points and over 3 1/2 quarters of scoring difficulties for themselves. Junior linebacker Oluwafemi Oladejo said the defense is still searching for ways to improve, despite Kelly’s compliments.

“The reality is we have to go out there and do ourselves,” Oladejo said. “Despite the great game, there’s still things we can fix and come and clean up.”

In addition to limiting its opponents’ scoring and total yardage, UCLA’s secondary has also seen significant statistical improvements. The Bruins recorded a total of 11 interceptions across 13 games in 2022, but with just four contests under their belts in 2023, they have already completed six interceptions. In addition, this season the Bruins have allowed an average of 186 yards in the air – 87 fewer per game than 2022.

UCLA is also on its way to surpassing its total number of sacks from last season. In 2023, the Bruins tallied 19 sacks, while this season they have already recorded 11.

Before going on to emphasize the impacts of Lynn’s arrival to the team and the positive changes the coach has brought to the squad, senior linebacker Kain Medrano reflected on the defense’s growth since his freshman campaign.

“We’ve come a long way,” Medrano said.