UCLA @ Texas preview
Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium
The No. 4 Texas Longhorns and the UCLA Bruins enter Saturday’s non-conference matchup in Austin representing different ends of the college football world.
The Longhorns (2-0, 1-0) enter the fifth all-time meeting between the schools as a team with BCS aspirations but one still trying to find itself. The Bruins (1-2, 0-1) are still building for the future.
The Longhorns opened their Big 12 season last week with an uneven 24-14 win over Texas Tech. Texas showed flashes of the offensive team it hopes to be in piling up 320 total yards, including 227 passing yards. Coach Mack Brown is beginning to show more confidence in sophomore quarterback Garrett Gilbert by allowing him to throw downfield more, but the sophomore was intercepted three times by the Red Raiders. The ground game is still a work in progress. Still, Fozzy Whittaker, who ran for 61 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, appears to have solidified the running back position.
Defensively, the Horns appear to be in mid-season form. While Texas Tech doesn’t boast the score-a-minute offense of years past, Texas limited the Red Raiders and quarterback Taylor Potts to 158 passing yards. More impressively, they held the Red Raiders to minus-14 yards rushing.
The Bruins, under third-year head coach Rick Neuheisel, opened the season with a 31-22 loss to Kansas State and got spanked 35-0 by Stanford in their Pac-10 opener before whipping Houston 31-13 last week. In that victory, Houston lost two quarterbacks to injury.
UCLA, averaging nearly 18 points per game this season, racked up 365 total yards, including 266 rushing. Sophomore quarterback Kevin Prince, who has struggled this year, completed 9 of 17 passes for just 99 yards.
Sophomore running back Jonathan Franklin is the Bruins’ best weapon. He ran for 158 yards and three touchdowns against Houston and is averaging 97 rushing yards per game.
The Longhorns have won 33 of their last 36 September game and enter Saturday’s game favored by more than two touchdowns. The series between Texas and UCLA is tied 2-2, with the Bruins winning the most recent meetings, 49-31 in 1998 and 66-3 the year before.
The Longhorns (2-0, 1-0) enter the fifth all-time meeting between the schools as a team with BCS aspirations but one still trying to find itself. The Bruins (1-2, 0-1) are still building for the future.
The Longhorns opened their Big 12 season last week with an uneven 24-14 win over Texas Tech. Texas showed flashes of the offensive team it hopes to be in piling up 320 total yards, including 227 passing yards. Coach Mack Brown is beginning to show more confidence in sophomore quarterback Garrett Gilbert by allowing him to throw downfield more, but the sophomore was intercepted three times by the Red Raiders. The ground game is still a work in progress. Still, Fozzy Whittaker, who ran for 61 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, appears to have solidified the running back position.
Defensively, the Horns appear to be in mid-season form. While Texas Tech doesn’t boast the score-a-minute offense of years past, Texas limited the Red Raiders and quarterback Taylor Potts to 158 passing yards. More impressively, they held the Red Raiders to minus-14 yards rushing.
The Bruins, under third-year head coach Rick Neuheisel, opened the season with a 31-22 loss to Kansas State and got spanked 35-0 by Stanford in their Pac-10 opener before whipping Houston 31-13 last week. In that victory, Houston lost two quarterbacks to injury.
UCLA, averaging nearly 18 points per game this season, racked up 365 total yards, including 266 rushing. Sophomore quarterback Kevin Prince, who has struggled this year, completed 9 of 17 passes for just 99 yards.
Sophomore running back Jonathan Franklin is the Bruins’ best weapon. He ran for 158 yards and three touchdowns against Houston and is averaging 97 rushing yards per game.
The Longhorns have won 33 of their last 36 September game and enter Saturday’s game favored by more than two touchdowns. The series between Texas and UCLA is tied 2-2, with the Bruins winning the most recent meetings, 49-31 in 1998 and 66-3 the year before.