UCLA Football: UCLA vs Arizona Early Analysis

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Sep 26, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins running back Paul Perkins (24) scores a touchdown during the second quarter against the Arizona Wildcats at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports /

In 2015 the UCLA Football team really took it to the Arizona Wildcats when they met in the desert. This year the Wildcats travel to Pasadena looking to make amends.

The desert has been mostly kind to the UCLA Football program as of late. It gave them Brett Hundley and Paul Perkins who helped resurrect the program after a few middling years and since 2012 UCLA has not lost to Arizona.

Despite the three year record the 2015 match up gave most of the UCLA faithful a sense of dread. In practice that week the Bruins lost star linebacker Myles Jack to a season ending knee injury. At the same time the Wildcats were getting back their top linebacker Scooby Wright from a knee injury suffered early in the season. Josh Rosen, despite leading UCLA to a win, played a poor first half against a tough BYU team in the week prior showing that he was still just a freshman.

Those worries would be put to rest as soon as kickoff took place with the Bruins asserting themselves in all phases of the game with Rosen throwing for over 280 yards and two scores through the air and adding one on the ground. The UCLA running backs combined for 205 yards and five scores.

Defensively the Bruins were able to force three turnovers and limit the Wildcats through the air but surrendered 353 yards on the ground in what would be a hint at the run defense for the rest of the season.

2015 Record and Recap

Arizona Wildcats 7-6 (PAC-12)

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2015 started out with the Wildcats knocking down their first three opponents in their non-conference schedule although it was a fairly soft first three. They also had to deal with the loss of their top tackler the past three years in Wright and injuries to starting QB Anu Solomon who was knocked out the UCLA game and missed match ups against Stanford and a late season contest against rival Arizona St. Neither of those injuries were particularly easy to overcome.

The loss to UCLA would be the beginning to a very up and down PAC-12 season and the next week against the Stanford Cardinal, the Wildcats were pushed around the the tune of a 55-17 loss. They rebounded the next two weeks with PAC-12 victories but those were against the bottom feeders of the conference in Oregon St. and Colorado. Then came the losses again.

Arizona had a heartbreaking loss to the Washington State Cougars, a feeling which the Bruins also shared last season, and then were blown out by the Washington Huskies. They followed that loss up with another to the Trojans who scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to win the game by eight.

A double overtime win over Utah made the Wildcats bowl eligible but they also lost their sixth game of the season next week to rival Arizona St. They would finish the season with a win over New Mexico in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.

This season the Wildcats will have to adjust to an almost entirely new defensive staff lead by new defensive coordinator Marcel Yates who comes over after a very successful stint as the DC with Boise St. While there will be an adjustment period, head coach Rich Rodriguez has made it clear he wants a more physical, dominant, defense.

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