In Reply to: Lynn was overrated? posted by Dr.Bruin on January 03, 2024 at 14:47:08
UCLA had good personnel on Defense this year. The Murphy twins, Jay Toia, and Latu gave us a very strong front. We saw a glimmer of this early last season when the defense did an acceptable job against UW and Utah who were both otherwise high powered teams. However, it should be noted that the defense was completely inept against Oregon, and I believe that was before our DC went out sick. It also completely fell apart after our DC went on leave.
You could see the strength of the front 7 against Coastal Carolina, but there were several glaring flaws: tackling, penalties, and secondary coverage. After that game, however, those flaws got cleaned up. We still had the occasional unforced penalty but it wasn't as bad as it was against Coastal. I would attribute that turn around almost entirely to Lynn.
So while Lynn didn't make the Murphy brothers, Latu, and Toia as athletic as they are, he did improve the quality of play, and results, significantly.