Film Review: Why Did UCLA Struggle Against Hawaii?

In a new series, we're going to critically examine all 12 of UCLA's games in DeShaun Foster's first year as head coach in order to identify failures that could plague the Bruins in 2025 if they are not fixed.

While overtly critical, that's the purpose of the review. This will help establish points of emphasis and how Foster has or will fix/ improve them, giving everyone a better idea if Foster is making the strides needed to compete in the Big Ten.

The Hawaii game was a mess. Yes, UCLA did win, but it needed an incredible ounce of luck to defeat one of the worst Hawaii teams put on a field in the 21st century.

UCLA defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe's use of the 3-3-5 somewhat flexed or can be disguised into the 3-4 defense against a four-wide receiver set was interesting, but sending only three pass rushers was not. Malloe's lack of aggressiveness early gave Hawaii time to operate despite having a fledgling offensive line.

UCLA was able to do its job in coverage, but Hawaii quarterback Brayden Schager was inaccurate, indecisive and way too patient with the football. UCLA is lucky it didn't get burned. I'd like to see Malloe be more aggressive with his pass rush when the Bruins open against Utah. If not for a massive effort by the defense, Hawaii could've been up 14-0 early.

While not Tino Sunseri's fault, quarterback Ethan Garbers threw an interception while in the red zone. UCLA needs to be able to run the ball effectively in 2025. The offensive line play was poor, giving up pressure to a three-man rush. One play was so bad; Garbers ended up throwing an interception out of his own endzone while trying to throw the ball away in order to avoid a safety.

In that moment, Foster needed to make the boss call to run the ball. There were less than 30 seconds left, and Hawaii only had two timeouts. Take the game into the half.

To Malloe's credit, he dialed up the exotic blitzes in the second half to devastating effect. Malloe held Hawaii scoreless for the last 20 minutes of the game.

UCLA did not get tight end Moliki Matavao involved enough in the offense, and had it done so, UCLA would have been much more effective through the air.

While UCLA did kick a game-winning field goal with under a minute to go in the game, there were three points of emphasis UCLA needs to be better at next season during their season-opener. Malloe needs to dial up more pressures that attack the quarterback's blind side, the offensive line either needs to hold their blocks or they need to be schemed up better, and Foster needs to do a better job overriding his coordinators if they're trying to be aggressive when aggression is not called for.

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