UCLA Football: Quick Preview Vs. Cal Golden Bears

Ed Szczepanski-US PRESSWIRE

UCLA hasn’t won at Memorial Stadium since… a very long time. I’m very confident that this Saturday we will pick up a win. If you look at how weak Cal has been this year and you look how strong UCLA has been, advantage clearly goes to UCLA. Playing at Cal is very tough, loud, hostile environment. Cal’s QB, Zach Maynard is… um… mediocre at best.

He has one primary target: Keenan Allen. The only other playmaker on that squad is running back, Isi Sofele. He’s quick and elusive, but our D-Line and LB core will prove to stop him. Our secondary has been a big problem for us this year, we were torn up by Sean Mannion and at times, on Saturday by Colorado’s QB. Our most consistent DB in my opinion, is by far, Sophomore Tevin McDonald. He bailed us out with an absolutely beautiful forced fumble. Randall Goforth was beat on a slant route, when McDonald came from behind and punched the ball loose. Great job, kid.

As for our offense, I’m sure it will do its thing. Cal gives up 30 ppg and an average of 174.8 rushing yards per game and they also give up 251.2 passing yards per game. Put those stats together, and Brett Hundley and Johnathan Franklin will have great games.

Yes, Cal can show up a completely different team and smack UCLA at home, but who are we kidding? That’s highly unlikely. I do think that this will be a close game throughout, but we have too many playmakers and we will pull away late. This game will rely heavily on our run game. We get that going, we could put up 30 or more. Regardless, this team has the potential to do this every. single. game. I really love the Zone Read Option, it worked great last Saturday against Colorado. It opens up the field and it forces the defense to adjust, which is pretty hard to do. That being said, getting this win would be HUGE, huge as in a confidence booster and huge for us Bruin fans.