UCLA Football: How Washington State Head Coach Feels About Bruins' Defense

Jake Dickert weighs in.

Yesterday, your UCLA Bruins football program improved to a 4-1 record on the young 2023 season thanks to a 25-17 victory over the heretofore undefeated Washington State University Cougars, who now also fall to an identical 4-1 mark for the year.

After the game, WSU head coach Jake Dickert heaped high praise on the program's defense. Per Paolo Uggetti of ESPN, Dickert hailed it as the best defense in the entire Pac-12 conference.

In the early Rose Bowl bout (a Bruins upset), UCLA's defense, powered by the innovative scheming of defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, limited Washington State to a relatively limited 216-yard day. 

The Bruins also sacked junior Cougars quarterback Cameron Ward and caused four interceptions. Ward completed just 19-of-39 pass attempts (48.7%), passing for 197 yards (averaging 5.1 per pass), and notching twice the interceptions (two) as he had touchdowns.

UCLA tendered $1 million to extract Lynn from an NFL role with the Baltimore Ravens onto an NCAA roster. For several seasons, defense has been the most troubling issue for the Bruins under head coach Chip Kelly, but Lynn appears to have wholly reversed that frustrating trend. Even prior to the WSU game, the Bruins were ranked sixth nationally in scoring defense and eighth in total defense, reports J. Brady McCollough of The Los Angeles Times.

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