The UCLA Football team plays their last regular season game against Cal today. Go Joe Bruin informs you of a few stats you need to know before kickoff.
After a tough loss to USC last week, the UCLA Football team will possibly play their most important game this Friday. With Cal (5-6) coming to town, UCLA (5-6) needs one more victory to become bowl eligible.
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A win would be even more special to the Bruins players as it would be their send off to the recently fired Jim Mora. With both schools coming in at 5-6, you would expect their stats to reflect two teams that are under .500. Well, you’re right but there are a few other numbers that end up affecting this game.
5 – Total number of career wins between the two head coaches
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With the firing of Jim Mora after last week’s loss to USC, offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch takes the reigns for the Bruins against Cal. Although Fisch has been coaching for nearly 20 years, this will be his first game pacing the sideline as a head coach.
Justin Wilcox came to Cal this year with a long history of coaching the defensive side of the ball. But this year in Berkley marks his first as a head coach. Wilcox is trying to get the Bears to just their second winning season in the past seven years.
The five combined wins by both coaches are the fewest of any college football matchup this week. It will be interesting to see if Fisch will go conservative as a head coach or continue to let Josh Rosen throw it all over the field.
6 – The number of wins both teams are trying to reach Friday night
Cal and UCLA come into this game with 5-6 records. Wilcox would love to bring the Bears back to a bowl game in his first season at Cal. It would show improvement for a program which would go a long way for future recruiting.
Jedd Fisch would also love to get the Bruins eligible for a bowl game in his head coaching debut. While ending the regular season 6-6 isn’t what UCLA had hoped for when the season started, not getting into a bowl game would be even worse. This would be especially bad for a team that currently doesn’t have a permanent head coach and has had a number of players recently decommit.
44% – Third down conversion rate for Cal’s opponents
43.87% – UCLA’s third down conversion rate
Cal is allowing their opponents to convert on third down almost half the time (100th in FBS) while the Bruins’ offense converts on third down (27th in FBS) at about the same rate. If UCLA can get four or five extra first downs, that will give the Bruins’ high scoring offense more chances to put points on the boards.
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In a season where we have seen Josh Rosen go down with an injury and Jim Mora let go of his coaching duties, a victory Friday night would go a long way give the Bruins and their fans something to cheer about.