Know Your Opponent: UCLA Football vs. Arizona 2018

The UCLA football team got their first win of the season last week against Cal. Can they double that win total when Arizona visits the Rose Bowl this weekend?

The UCLA football team is 1-5 and it is the most excited a fan base could get in regards to a team with a record of that nature. The reason… the Bruins have shown a lot of progress in the last few weeks and it looks like it will bleed into this week’s contest against Arizona.

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The Wildcats are in a similar situation, albeit they might be trending in the opposite direction. Arizona does not have a solid defense and their offense, which was expected to take off with the combination of dual-threat QB Khalil Tate and spread offense guru Noel Mazzone, has been grounded.

Arizona Offense

The Wildcat offense was having a hard time getting off the ground before the loss of Khalil Tate. One of the things that made Arizona’s offense so potent last season was the fact that Tate was a dual-threat nightmare. In 2017, Tate had 1,411 yards on the ground, averaging 128.3 per game, second in the Pac-12 behind Stanford’s Bryce Love.

This season, he is nowhere close to that mark. Through seven games, he only has 113 yards, averaging 7.1 rushing yards per game. Part of that has to do with the fact that Tate injured his ankle in game two against Houston. Since then he has been limited in the run and has had to focus more on his passing game which is not as strong as his run game. Though his total yards of 1,415 has almost matched the 1,591 from last year, his completion percentage is down from 62.0% to 53.4%. But Arizona doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. So where will Arizona get their offense from?

"DID YOU KNOW? Arizona’s slogan of “Bear Down” comes from a statement former quarterback John Byrd Salmon just before he passed away in 1926. Former coach J.F. McKale had told his team that Salmon’s last message to the Wildcats was “Tell them to bear down.”"

With Rodriguez leading the offense, he will look to pass more than run. In four games he has thrown for only 275 yards, though he is doing slightly better with completions (57.8%). If he decides to go through the air, he will target Shawn Poindexter, Shun Brown and Tony Ellison, all of which have over 300 yards receiving on the year. Though Poindexter has the most yards on the team (446), the distribution is fairly even between all three, typical of a Noel Mazzone offense.

If the Wildcats look to go to the ground, JJ Taylor will be the main weapon, though Gary Brightwell should get a good number of carries. Either way, both have to find a way to get through Bruins’ first line of defense, which might not be hard. Both are strong runners and can spot the openings in the line. Both average over 5.3 yards per carry, so if they can continue with this type of performance, they have a chance to beat the Bruins.

2018 Arizona Offensive Stats

Total – 427.1 | Rushing – 183.3 | Passing – 243.9 | Scoring – 27.4

Unfortunately, UCLA has been improving on all fronts, including their defense, which might look to pounce on the wounded Cats. The Bruins have improved on their run defense, so if they can shut down Taylor and Brightwell, they might hamstring the Arizona offense. Another way to break down the Wildcats is to keep up the pressure on Rodriguez. If they can rattle him early and often, similar to what they did against California, then Arizona might have no answer for the Bruins.