Know Your Opponent: UCLA Football vs. California 2018

The UCLA football team is still winless in head coach Chip Kelly’s first season, but they have a chance to change all that when they visit Cal this Saturday.

The UCLA football team is 0-5 and it is probably the best 0-5 start in the history of 0-5 starts. Though I have no way of knowing that, I do know that UCLA’s best chance to get their first win of the season can come against California.

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UCLA and big brother from the bay are running along similar paths, though it seems the Golden Bears are a little bit further down the line than their Bruin counterparts.

They started the season 3-0 in non-conference play but hit a wall once they got into the Pac-12. They were competitive against Oregon and Arizona, but couldn’t seal the deal as mistakes abounded.

Still, they are growing into their own and will give UCLA all they have, especially with their defense.

So will this be a Golden opportunity for the Bears to get a win and jump back into the North Divison race, or will the Bruins bounce their brethren for win #1?

California Offense

Cal is in the middle of a revolution, the only thing that no one has told the offense. With the defense doing such amazing things, the program’s headway has been slowed by the fact that the offense is not holding up their end of the bargain.

"DID YOU KNOW? The University of California Berkeley is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Back on March 23, 1868, the University of California opened its doors and the UC system began."

One thing that has slowed the offense’s ability to take a step forward is that fact that they have not had consistency among the quarterbacks. Three quarterbacks have played this year with two of them making an appearance in all five games. Cal seems to have settled on Brandon McIlwain who leads the team in passing yards (545) and rushing yards (359). Unfortunately, things have not exactly been peachy with McIlwain in control. In the last two games, he has thrown at least one pick-six.

And that is part of the problem with Cal. They make mistakes and turn the ball over. Last week, Arizona’s defense got two scores off of Cal’s offense. The Golden Bears just seem to have problems all around which is not a good sign considering they have most of their offensive staff and returners from last season.

2018 California Offensive Stats

Total – 410.0 | Rushing – 188.4 | Passing – 221.6 | Scoring – 26.2

The offensive line is spotty, the receivers are not exactly explosive, the run game seems to be dependent on the quarterback and they cannot get into the end zone enough which is troubling considering they put up 410 total yards per game.

UCLA is playing aggressive, but they are also getting way too many balls fly through the air. They need to be a little bit more solid in the middle of the field and hold off the Bear receivers. But if the Bruin D-line can get constant pressure on whoever is slinging the ball, then that would help the defense away from the line.