LOS ANGELES — Defensive lineman Nico Davillier has had no trouble making himself at home after moving from Arkansas to Los Angeles.
UCLA is fitting the former Razorback’s needs throughout the first six practices of spring football, and while there have been some business benefits to the change, it was the football, as well as head coach DeShaun Foster, defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe and senior defensive analyst Ramsen Golpashin, that drew Davillier to the Bruins.
“I actually came here because of the defenses they run,” Davillier told reporters Saturday. “Coach Malloe was a big part of that, Coach Ram and then Coach Fos, of course. I feel like they just wanted me. They needed me, and I wanted and needed them as well.”
He collected 23 tackles and a sack in his junior year with the Razorbacks and said his experience allowed him to quickly digest UCLA’s defensive playbook and teach it to younger players.
Davillier anticipates being used at defensive end and tackle – similar to what he played at Arkansas. He’ll join a defense that Malloe has termed “unorthodox.”
“My whole mindset is making sure that I’m teaching what can show up on film, whether that be a scheme or a technique,” Malloe told reporters earlier in spring. “I’m not doing it because my coach taught me that, who his coach taught him that, who his coach taught him that.
“And that’s why I love that word ‘unorthodox.’ So at least as a coach we think outside the box of what can help the players. And as a player, they also start to think outside the box.”
Situating himself in Los Angeles has also offered more opportunities for exposure and brand-building. He has already partnered with LA-based sneaker company FCTRY LAb and is working on a partnership with TILT, an Inglewood sneaker reseller and boutique.
“You just gotta just put your name out there,” Davillier said. “We’re going to start smaller and then just keep on going up once I get a bigger name for myself out here.”
Davillier moved halfway across the country with his 2-year-old pocket pitbull in tow, but it wasn’t the first major move that he made. His family is from New Orleans but moved out of the area just days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. He was a year old.
Most of his family returned to Louisiana in the years after but Davillier and his immediate family stayed in the Midwest, where he played high school football at Maumelle High School in Arkansas as a four-star recruit before committing to the Razorbacks.
Injury updates
Receivers Titus Mokiao-Atimalala and Rico Flores, defensive lineman Keanu Williams and tight end Hudson Habermehl were seen participating in non-team drills outside of the Wasserman Football Center on Saturday morning.
Each is working back from injury and Mokiao-Atimalala was the only one dressed in pads.
Foster said on Thursday that the team is working to establish a timetable for the returns of Flores and Williams and mentioned that each player’s rehab process is progressing well.
Malloe was also optimistic about Williams’ return when he spoke to reporters earlier in spring.
“We don’t want to rush something that doesn’t have to be rushed,” he said. “He’s had so many snaps from when he was at Oregon to when he played for us. The good part is that they’re hungry to get back out.”
Originally Published:
