No one will accuse this 2017 UCLA Football team of being an all around “good” team. While the offense has has improved by leaps and bounds, the defense that was already going to be finding new playmakers has looked flat out bad plenty of times this year. They haven’t been helped with suspensions from targeting and injuries but such is the nature of the beast that is college football.
The resulting situation was the Bruins struggling to find healthy and capable players for all 11 positions on defense.
On the defensive line the UCLA Football fanbase was ecstatic at the idea of Jaelan Phillips starting from day one for the Bruins but injuries and freshman mistakes have marred the debut of the top recruit.