As promised last week, let's talk about Utah's 2025 schedule, starting with former conference mate UCLA on the road on August 30th.
First, figuring out who’s playing for UCLA this year is shockingly difficult. For all our complaints about Whitt, UCLA doesn’t have a 2025 roster, doesn’t have a public spring depth chart, etc. I had to rely on fairly sketchy websites that look like they were coded in 1992 to get a depth chart, so please forgive any errors.
Briefly, here’s what to expect from UCLA.
First, head coach. DeShaun Foster took over last year after Chip Kelly left and went 5-7 in UCLA’s first year in the Big 10. Foster’s been on staff at UCLA since 2017, so he’s not new to coaching. Last year’s team really struggled on offense, with the 118th ranked offense and the 131st ranked rushing offense. The defense was much better, holding opposing offenses to 340.8 yards, good for #39 in the country.
Let’s talk about what we should expect on offense.
Quarterback: After throwing a fit at Tennessee over money, Nico Iamaleava transferred to UCLA in the spring portal. Nico played well at Tennessee, with a PFF rating of 78.3 last year and career numbers of 241/380 (63.4%) for 2,931 yards (7.7 ypa) with 21 TD and 5 INT. He also ran for 574 yards on 98 attempts (5.9 ypc) with 6 TD. One serious negative, he’s fumbled the ball 11 times, including 10 last year. That put him roughly 12th in fumbles per game, despite a fairly low number of attempts. Last year’s starter (Ethan Garbers) is still on the team as well so there’s some experience and talent at QB.
Running Back: Last year’s running game struggled, with only TJ Harden getting over 200 yards (124/506/2), and he transferred to SMU. The expected starter is Jalen Berger, who is a RS SR and has played for Wisconsin, Michigan St, and UCLA. His best year was 2022, when he went 148/683/6 at MSU. He struggled last year, going only 48/178 (3.7 ypc). Utah fans also may see former Ute and former Vandal Anthony Woods. Woods was injured last year so he never suited up for Utah before transferring to UCLA.
Receivers: Several of last year’s top catchers in terms of snaps played are gone, with TE Moliki Matavao (41/506/2) getting drafted by the Saints, WR J. Michael Sturdivant (22/315/2) transferring to Florida, and WR Logan Loya (29/348/4) transferring to Minnesota. Utah should expect to see WR Kwazi Gilmer (31/345/2), WR Titus Mokiao-Atimalala (28/294/1) and former Ute WR Mikey Matthews (32/272/1 last year at Cal) catching most of the passes. There’s not much experience at the TE position, with Senior Hudson Habermehl the most experienced (24/315/5 in four years at UCLA).
Offensive Line: UCLA returns two offensive linemen from last year’s team: C Sam Yoon (50.0 last year with 584 career snaps over the past two years) and RT Garrett DiGiorgio (72.4 last year with 2,528 career snaps). Both guard starters went to the draft, although neither were drafted, and LT Niki Prongos (53.0 last year on 443 snaps) transferred to Stanford. The internet believes that Courtland Ford, who transferred from Kentucky, will start at LT. He was rated 58.8 last year at Kentucky and has 1,023 career snaps in the past 5 years. The internet expects Oluwafunto Akinshilo to start at one guard spot, although he hasn’t played any snaps yet, and they expect FSU transfer Julian Armella to start at the other guard spot (104 snaps at FSU but none last year).
Overall for UCLA, their quarterback position looks good but the rest of the offense is a work in progress, and last year’s offense struggled, so I expect a low-scoring offense this year.
Now let’s take a look at the defense. As I mentioned earlier, the defense was better than the offense, ranking in the top 40. That came through in the draft, as UCLA had two middle linebackers (Carson Schwesinger and Kain Medrano), an outside linebacker / defensive end (Oluwafemi Oladejo), and a defensive tackle (Jay Toia) all taken in the draft. Those are four of the five players who played the most snaps last year, with only safety Brian Addison (who is also out of eligibility) playing more than any of them, so the defense may take a step back.
Defensive Tackle: Sitiveni Havili-Kautusi was the most experienced returning DT, and he transferred to Oklahoma ST. As a result of the losses, UCLA will probably rotate the following players: Siale Taupaki (56.6 on 272 snaps last year with 23 tackles and 1 sack last year) and AJ Fuimaono (51.9 on 195 snaps last year with 2 tackles) both played last year. Also expected to contribute are two players who missed last year with injury, Keanu Williams who played 13 games with 14 tackles and 1 TFL in 2023, and Gary Smith, III, who played 247 snaps in 2023 and was rated 79.5 with 13 tackles, 3 TFL, and 2 sacks.
Defensive End: Despite losing Oladejo, UCLA returns two solid somewhat experienced defensive ends in Jacob Busic (56.6 on 276 snaps last year and 1,591 career snaps, mostly at Navy, with 10 tackles and 1 sack last year) and Devin Aupiu (47.0 on 431 snaps last year and 632 career snaps, with 15 tackles, 5 TFL, and 1.5 sacks last year). They also pulled in a productive transfer from Arkansas, Nico Davillier (71.0 on 362 snaps last year and 524 career snaps, with 23 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack last year)
Linebacker: As mentioned above, UCLA lost three linebackers from last year’s team to the draft and lost another senior as well (Devin Aupiu). The cupboard isn’t completely bare with Jalen Woods (66.1 last year on 186 snaps with 22 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack) and JonJon Vaughns (50.1 last year on 100 snaps and 1,064 career snaps with 4 tackles and 1 TFL). They also brought in Isaiah Chisom from Oregon State (61.0 on 595 snaps last year with 45 tackles, 9 TFL, and 1 sack)
Corner: UCLA lost their top three corners, Kaylin Moore and Devin Kirkwood were both out of eligibility, and Jaylin Davies transferred to Oklahoma State. As a result, UCLA brought in several transfers at corner, including Oregon State’s Andre Jordan, Jr. (65.3 on 480 snaps), Indiana’s Jamier Johnson (50.6 on 602 snaps), and Louisville’s Benjamin Perry (63.0 on 307 snaps with 1,363 career snaps). Those are three solid corners, but expect some growing pains at this position.
Safeties: The UCLA defender who played the most snaps last year was Bryan Addison, who is also out of eligibility. UCLA’s other two safeties (KJ Wallace and Ramon Henderson) were also seniors. As a result, UCLA again went looking in the transfer portal. Expected to start are Ole Miss transfer Key Lawrence (66.3 in 2023 on 398 snaps at Oklahoma, with 1,423 career snaps) and UCF transfer Bryon Threats (71.8 on 73 snaps last year and 1,386 career snaps).
UCLA’s defense was its strength last year mostly because they played a ton of seniors, with 10 of the top 11 players out of eligibility and another two of the top 15 transferring out. While UCLA was able to fill some of those holes in the transfer portal, there is a lot of inexperience on this team. Expect the defense to take a step back.
Overall, don’t expect UCLA to be very good. They went 5-7 last year, barely getting by Hawaii before getting blown out by Indiana, LSU, Oregon, Penn State, and losing a close one to Minnesota at home. They then put together a little bit of a win streak, with one-score wins over Rutgers, Nebraska, and Iowa, before losing two of their last three to Washington and USC and getting a final win over Fresno by 7. UCLA won their 5 wins by only 23 points, so they may have been even worse than their 5-7 record. If Utah has any chance of returning to its recent success, it will need to start with a win in the Rose Bowl, as this should be a very beatable UCLA team, even with Iamaleava at QB.
www.espn.com
