UCLA Football: 5 storylines to follow during 2018 spring ball

5. Bruins switch to 3-4 defense

The UCLA Bruins are switching from Jim Mora’s 4-3 defense to the 3-4 defense that Chip Kelly ran at Oregon and in the NFL. Jerry Azzinaro will be his defensive coordinator at UCLA. Coach Azzinaro worked with Kelly at Oregon, and with the Eagles and 49ers before serving as Cal defensive line coach in 2017.

Now the defensive coordinator of the Bruins, their staff has to bring in bigger bodies for the defensive line and find a rush end at linebacker.

Azzinaro and Kelly have their work cut out for them trying to rebuild the 120th-ranked defense per the S&P+ When Chip Kelly was at Oregon the defense wasn’t as dismal as it became under Mark Helfrich.

At UCLA, junior defensive end Chigozie Nnoruka has bulked up for a move to nose tackle who plays directly over the center. The nose tackle is the key to a 3-4 defense as he has to command a double team to free up the inside linebackers to make plays.

The Bruins recruited in a big nose tackle in Otito Ogbonnia out of Texas to fill that role as well. Jaelan Phillips should fill the edge rush role. Phillips, a sophomore, is 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds. In six games, he logged seven tackles for loss in 2017. He was the top rated player in 2017 by many recruiting services.

New defensive coordinators always talk about “violent, aggressive, attacking” defenses and the pre-spring reports from UCLA are no different. Azzinaro will have to back that up with veteran assistants like Paul Rhoads and Don Pellam bringing in decades of knowledge and younger assistants around them for hype and a different mindset the UCLA defense will vastly improve in 2018.