Matchup to Watch Week Three: Indiana’s Defensive Line vs. UCLA’s Offensive Line

Written by: TJ Inman 

The 2-0 Indiana Hoosiers travel to Pasadena for a monumental clash with the UCLA Bruins in the Rose Bowl (the stadium, not the game). Indiana has been fantastic in the first two contests of the Curt Cignetti era as the Hoosiers hammered Florida International and then had a record-setting performance against Western Illinois. Saturday night on NBC will be the first of several “toss-up” games this season for the Hoosiers and it is being viewed as a chance to show just how ready this IU program is to compete for a bowl game. Their opponent is a real mystery as the UCLA Bruins have a first-year head coach and new coordinators and they have only played one game after a bye last Saturday. UCLA survived a scare from Hawaii with a pair of fourth-quarter field goals propelling them to a 16-13 victory over the Rainbow Warriors. 

There are so many potential key matchups in this contest but this article requires me to pick out one of them to highlight: Indiana’s defensive line against UCLA’s offensive line. The Bruins ran the ball very well in 2023, averaging 4.88 yards per rush and racking up 21 rushing touchdowns. They might end up being great on the ground again but that did not appear to be the case against Hawaii, the only piece of evidence we have for this current season. UCLA brought in offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy from the NFL and then lost a pair of offensive tackles to injury during the opening game but they still struggled, gaining only 3.6 yards per rush on 20 carries. T.J. Harden ran it nine times for only nine yards and Keegan Jones had three carries for 13 yards. Ethan Garbers broke loose for a few nice gains and ended up with 47 yards to lead the team. In total, that is well-short of expectations for UCLA. They also surrendered six tackles for loss to a team that was not expected to be strong on defense. For context, Hawaii played in week zero and gave up 3.1 yards per rush to FCS team Delaware State. 

There are still questions about Indiana’s defensive line and whether or not the Hoosiers have the quality depth they’ll need to withstand a long season. Through two weeks though, Pat Kuntz and Buddha Williams have to be extremely proud and pleased with the way their defensive line has played. They have rotated a lot of players in, not suffered any known injuries and have held opponents to only 1.16 yards per carry on 56 carries. Indiana has 10 sacks and 16 tackles for loss with Mikail Kamara, Tyrique Tucker, CJ West and Marcus Burris Jr. standing out on the line as playmakers. The goal for the Indiana Hoosiers against UCLA is simple: limit UCLA’s run-game and make them one-dimensional. If UCLA could not consistently produce on the ground and they were put into obvious passing situations, the Hoosiers would be able to pressure quarterback Ethan Garbers and he is prone to mistakes when pressured. Garbers was only 19 for 38 for 272 yards with two interceptions. It would be false to claim Ethan Garbers was a poor quarterback but he’s not a star and he relies on a strong running game to take some pressure off of him. If the Hoosiers are able to overwhelm UCLA’s offensive line and make the Bruins one-dimensional, they’ll have a great shot to move to 3-0.