It was announced on Thursday that UCLA football’s season opener against Cincinnati will be moved up two days, showcasing the game on ESPN.
Year 2 of the Chip Kelly era with the UCLA football team will begin sooner than expected. Two days sooner.
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On Thursday it was announced that the Bruins will be playing their 2019 opener against Cincinnati at Nippert Stadium on Thursday, August 29. The game was originally scheduled to be played on Saturday, August 31, but was moved to “accommodate” ESPN, which will broadcast the game.
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Kickoff time has yet to be announced, though we should expect the contest to start in the early evening as this will be a game played in the Eastern Time Zone. This is the second game of the UCLA-Cincinnati home-and-home series.
Last year, both opened the season in Pasadena with the Bearcats ruining Kelly’s first game back to college football with a 26-17 win over the Bruins.
This year’s game will help kickoff Week 1 of the 2019 season as one of 11 games that will commence on the Thursday before the first official weekend of the season.
This contest will begin an arduous non-conference schedule for the Bruins which continues the following week against San Diego State at the Rose Bowl. That game will be followed up by the second game of a home-and-home against Oklahoma who will now have former Alabama gun-slinger Jalen Hurts leading the high-powered offense.
UCLA then begins conference play two weeks later on September 21 at Washington State.
The game against Cincinnati is the second game of the season that will be played on a Thursday. On October 17, the Bruins head up to Stanford for their midweek affair,