Tag: Darius Muasau

Laiatu Latu highlights 3 UCLA players invited to NFL Scouting Combine

Three UCLA players have received invites to the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine.

The UCLA Bruins football program is about to undergo a big change after DeShaun Foster was hired as the head coach to replace Chip Kelly.

However, a few UCLA football players are heading for the NFL and trying to make a mark in the 2024 NFL Draft. On Tuesday, the full list of players invited to the NFL Scouting Combine was released, and there are three UCLA players on the list:

  • Laiatu Latu
  • Darius Muasau
  • Gabriel Murphy

Latu is expected to be a surefire first-round pick and has been taken in the top 10 in some mock drafts, so he has a chance to move up even higher if he performs well at the Combine.

The Murphy twins made some noise at the East-West Shrine Bowl, but only Gabriel was invited to the Combine.

Darius Muasau is another play that has garnered attention this offseason, so all three UCLA players will have a lot of eyes on them at the Scouting Combine.

This year’s Combine is on February 26 through March 4 in Indianapolis.

4 defensive standouts from Shrine Bowl practices

The defense was strong at the East-West Shrine Bowl practices. Which 2024 NFL draft prospects were standouts from that side of the ball?

The Senior Bowl isn’t the only college all-star game for NFL draft prospects to shine. East-West Shrine Bowl practices wrapped up on Tuesday morning, and the New Orleans Saints were in attendance. The defense jumped off the screen at multiple positions. Throughout the four days of practice, I found myself gravitating towards the defense during practice for both teams.

The position group that stood out the most was the defensive ends on the West team. You could have filled the defensive standouts with just that group and been justified. I decided to pick one guy from the group in Sundiata Anderson, however. These are four defensive standouts from the Shrine Bowl practices:

UCLA’s defense is something the Ducks will look to exploit in Autzen

While the Bruins offense has been sensational, the defense has just been okay and Oregon will need to take advantage.

UCLA’s defensive statistics won’t jump off the page, but one quality they do have, and not all teams have this, is they are able to get a stop when they absolutely need one.

The offense is dynamic to be sure, but the Bruin defense has to ability to step up and set the offense up for success at any time. But against the two teams with play-making abilities, Washington and Utah, the Bruin defense had some trouble.

Now UCLA is going to face the best offense they’ve played against in Oregon and unlike those other games against the Huskies and Utah, this won’t be in the Rose Bowl. It’ll be against the very hostile environment of Autzen Stadium. This is no doubt, the biggest test the Bruins will face until they meet USC towards the end of the season.

Transfers are all over the place in Los Angeles, especially with the Trojans, but perhaps the biggest transfer in that town goes to UCLA in linebacker Darius Muasau. He came to the Bruins from Hawai’i after the 6-foot-1, 230-pounder left the Rainbow Warriors with 274 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 26.5 tackles for loss, and two inceptions over the last three seasons on the island.

The two-time First Teamer All-Mountain West performer has kept on playing at a high level as a Bruin. Muasau leads UCLA with 38 tackles, half of those being solo and one interception.

While Mausau is a ball hawk, UCLA’s other linebacker, Laiatu Latu goes after the quarterback. He leads the team with 6.5 sacks.

Oregon might want to try to exploit the Bruins’ secondary if the weather conditions allow it. UCLA gives up 245 yards through the air. Nickel back JonJon Vaughns has two of their seven interceptions. They play a lot of zone defense and their scheme impresses Oregon coach Dan Lanning, but as with any zone defense, there are some holes.

“They’ve done a good job. I think they play really good defense. They’re sound you can tell they’re well-coached,” he said. “They play a variety of coverages. They’re gonna play a little bit more solid than some of the teams that we played, which means they have good vision break on the ball, and usually, when you play more zone, it’s going to create more opportunities for interceptions. There are also holes in that zone.”

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