The UCLA Football team’s season opener versus Texas A&M has been moved from Saturday, September 2 to Sunday, September 3.
The UCLA Football program has announced that their season opener for the 2017 season has been moved back one day. The Bruins and Aggies will now kickoff at either 4:30 or 5 p.m. PT on Sunday, September 3 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.
Though this may strike some as odd (me included), it seems as though the move was to spread several marquee games across the 5-day college football Labor Day weekend.
Though it messes with the schedule a tad, the move is a solid choice as it puts both the Texas A&M and UCLA Football programs on display for nation as they will be the only game that Sunday.
Unfortunately, there are a few minor drawbacks. The first is that Bruins fans will have to delay their tailgating activities one extra day (oh well). The other is that the Bruins will have one less day of practice the following week, though the good news is, the next game the Bruins play will be against cupcake-esque Hawaii at the Rose Bowl.
Still, they can’t beat having Sunday all to themselves as this will be a primetime game on the east coast with a 7:30 or 8 p.m. ET kickoff.
The Bruins will try to avenge their 2016 loss in College Station where the Bruins fell 31-24 in overtime. That was the start of an underachieving season where the Bruins uncharacteristically finished 4-8 and without a bowl to play in.
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This season, the Bruins look to revamp their offense with new Offensive Coordinator Jedd Fisch. After a less-than-stellar output in 2016, UCLA looks to bounce back behind now healthy junior QB Josh Rosen who overcame a shoulder injury in 2016 which had him out of the second half of the season.