The path to becoming Arizona’s defensive coordinator is increasingly going through Westwood.
For the second time since 2019, the Wildcats have nabbed a UCLA defensive position coach to become their defensive coordinator, this time picking defensive line coach Johnny Nansen. Arizona had previously hired Bruins secondary coach Paul Rhoads to be its defensive coordinator in late 2019 in a move that lasted one season before the dismissal of coach Kevin Sumlin and his staff.
In his two seasons at UCLA, Nansen helped the team pile up some big recruiting wins, including landing defensive lineman Jay Toia as a transfer from USC after Toia had been committed to the Trojans when Nansen coached USC’s inside linebackers. Nansen also helped the Bruins land defensive linemen Quintin Somerville and Tiaoalii Savea, who were four-star high school prospects.
UCLA’s rushing defense dramatically improved under Nansen, allowing a Pac-12-best 3.6 yards per carry in 2020, and ranking fourth in the conference by giving up 3.76 yards per carry in 2021. The Bruins also led the conference with 3.29 sacks per game in 2020 before ranking second with 2.17 sacks per game in 2021.
Nansen replaces Don Brown, who took the same position at Massachusetts after one season as the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator under Jedd Fisch.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
