Things will look much different for the UCLA Bruins in 2026. Not only do the Bruins have a new head coach with Bob Chesney, the Bruins have added over 40 new players that are looking to help erase the memory of the 2025 season where UCLA went 3-9.
There was a plethora of areas of weakness for Chensey and the Bruins to fill, and they added talent to every single position group. One of those areas to target was the safety position. UCLA added Utah’s Tao Johnson, Iowa State’s Ta’Shawn James and Ohio State’s Malik Hartford to their safety room.
The trio of three star transfers should help the backend of the UCLA secondary. The Bruins need all the help on their defense they can get, last season the Bruins had the worst scoring defense in the Big Ten, allowing 33.4 points per game. UCLA’s defense allowed the fourth-most yards and the second-most rushing yards per game at 190.4.
UCLA now will have two of the best safeties from the Big 12 Conference last season, with PFSN365’s Cam Mellor sharing a stat that shows Johnson and James had the two lowest catch rate allowed in the Big 12 during the 2025 season. Johnson and James were tied for first at 38.1%.
A pair of impactful safeties along with James Madison’s star edge rusher Sahir West should lead to a much more competent UCLA defense. Not only will the Bruins have more talent, they’ll also get to not face the Indiana Hoosiers and the Ohio State Buckeyes this season after the two teams combined to score 104 points against UCLA in two games.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA added two of the best safeties from the Big 12 Conference
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
