UCLA Football: The Road Through The Pac-12 South Division
The UCLA Football team has been very good on the road which should help them in their quest to capture the Pac-12 South Division this Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against USC.
Before the season started, I looked at the UCLA Football schedule and noticed something that seemed a bit odd. After a tough schedule that included two consecutive Thursday night games (let’s never do that again, okay Pac-12?) and a bruising conference schedule, the Bruins were going to end their season with two road games against two of the tougher teams in the South Division.
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The expectations were high before the season as many Bruin fans believed that UCLA would make it to the Pac-12 Championship Game, the only problem was those two away games to end the season would take place at Utah and at USC.
No matter where the Bruins would be before that point, the last two games were guaranteed to be battles, South Division in reach or not.
Fast forward to this past Saturday where the Bruins got victory #1 in this two-game road trip. The UCLA Football team had done the impossible in coming back from obscurity after losing to Arizona State and Stanford in consecutive games early in the conference season.
UCLA Bruins
Then after three wins and a surprising loss to Washington State, the Bruins put themselves in position to control their own destiny. Utah was also in that same boat, but unfortunately, they fell hard last Saturday in Salt Lake City. UCLA beat Utah, on the road, 17-9.
It was the fourth road win of the year for the Bruins. In the last two seasons, UCLA Football is 11-1 playing away from the Rose Bowl. Despite the one loss, which was to Stanford, UCLA has things covered on the road and inexplicably seems to do better away from home.
That makes this upcoming rivalry game against USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that much more intriguing. Can the Bruins continue with their road work and put out another victory away from home?
At this point, why not, especially considering what is at stake in this game. The winner of the UCLA-USC game takes the South Division and gets a trip to the Pac-12 Championship Game against Stanford. Hopefully we can cover that next week, but we are not even thinking about that.
Right now it is all about USC. The Bruins have a chance to win their fourth straight against the Trojans and if they do, Head Coach Jim Mora will be 4-0 against USC (against four different coaches as well).
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You can be sure Mora has this team looking straight ahead with complete focus on that school across town. Whatever is at stake (streaks, South Division, Pac-12 Championship, etc.) none of that is of any concern. The ONLY thing that matters right now is to BEAT SC.
Go Bruins!