UCLA @ Utah preview
Rice-Eccles Stadium
Last Meeting ( Oct 22, 2016 ) Utah 52, UCLA 45
Once-promising seasons have dissolved into all-out bowl-eligibility fights for UCLA and Utah with both entering November with .500 records. The final four-game stretch run for each begins Friday night as the Utes host the Bruins in Salt Lake City.
Utah has dropped four straight since a 4-0 start, with the last two defeats being blowout losses to Arizona State (30-10) and Oregon (41-20). As a result, the Utes find themselves alone in the Pac-12 South Division basement at 1-4, and coach Kyle Whittingham says his team has reached a true crossroads. “We’re 4-4 with four to go, and we can go one of two directions,” Whittingham said Monday at his weekly news conference. “We can either continue to take our lumps and not play as well as we need to, or we can get back on track and get back to playing the way we know we’re capable of playing.” The sentiment is the same at UCLA as the Bruins have lost four of six since a 2-0 start, including double-digit conference losses to Stanford (58-34), Arizona (47-30) and, most recently, Washington (44-23).
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, FS1. LINE: Utah -6
ABOUT UCLA (4-4, 2-3 Pac-12): The Bruins would appear to be largely out of luck unless they can find some sort of fix for the nation’s worst run defense, which has been trampled for an average of 307.1 yards per game, 6.05 yards per carry and 23 touchdowns. In UCLA’s three Pac-12 defeats, the damage was even worse with Stanford, Arizona and Washington averaging 398.3 ground yards and totaling 14 rushing TDs. UCLA counters with one of the nation’s top quarterbacks in Josh Rosen, who has a 145.8 rating and leads the conference with 339.1 passing yards per game, and senior wide receiver Darren Andrews, who is pacing the Pac-12 with nine TD grabs and ranks third with 88.4 yards per outing.
ABOUT UTAH (4-4, 1-4): The Utes hope to slow Rosen with the Pac-12’s fourth-ranked pass defense (199.1 yards), which has allowed only nine TD passes while totaling 10 interceptions. Dual-threat sophomore quarterback Tyler Huntley has played the last two games after sitting out two contests with a shoulder injury, and rebounded from a four-interception outing against Arizona State with 339 total yards of offense, two TDs and no picks in the loss to Oregon. Linebacker Sunia Tauteoli ranks ninth in the Pac-12 with 8.5 tackles for loss, but the Utes are trying to shore up their own run defense after getting gashed for a season-high 347 yards by running back Royce Freeman and Oregon.
EXTRA POINTS
1. UCLA leads the series 11-4, but the two teams have split their six meetings since Utah joined the Pac-12 in 2011. The Utes prevailed in a 52-45 shootout last season in Los Angeles.
2. The contest will serve as Utah’s 10th annual Blackout Game, and while the Utes own a 7-2 record in such contests, one of their losses was to the Bruins in 2013.
3. Utah is tied for eighth nationally with 19 takeaways and owns a plus-3 turnover differential while UCLA is 11th in the conference with a minus-7 turnover margin.
PREDICTION: Utah 36, UCLA 31