The No. 12 UCLA Bruins are preparing for a showdown on Saturday against the 4-1 Wisconsin Badgers. Not only will UCLA have to adjust to life without Nico Iamaleava, they’ll be doing so against a talented Wisconsin defense.
Iamaleava went down with an injury last week against Oregon, and is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season. That leaves UCLA with Ty Dieffenbach and Madden Iamaleava at quarterback, neither of whom have yet started a game for the Bruins.
UCLA will hope that whoever starts at quarterback will be able to continue the momentum that the Bruins have at the moment, but they’ll have to do so against the No. 8 defense in the Big Ten Conference. UCLA’s head coach Bob Chesney spoke about the Wisconsin defense during his media availability on Tuesday.
“They’re a lot like us structurally,” Chesney said of the Badgers’ defense. “This defensive end (Sebastian Cheeks) is absolutely a problem. He is very disruptive and absolutely can destroy the run game. He hunts, literally hunts, the quarterback. He’s an interesting player to watch”
Chesney didn’t call out Cheeks by name, but it seems that the Wisconsin senior will be a player to watch on Saturday. Cheeks leads the team with 2.5 sacks this season, adding three passes defensed and two forced fumbles. Wisconsin has only five sacks on the season but the team has allowed only 111.5 rushing yards per game so far this season.
“They mix it up just enough,” Chesney said of the defense. “They know what they want to do, with the core of who they are, but they have just enough wrinkles, coming off of a bye week, you just never know. So we have to prepare for everything.”
5-0 UCLA enters Saturday’s game as 2.5 point favorites at the Rose Bowl despite missing their starting quarterback.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: 'They're a lot like us' Bob Chesney speaks on the Wisconsin defense