UCLA @ Nebraska preview
Levi's Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 14, 2013 ) UCLA 41, Nebraska 21
FOSTER FARMS BOWL STORYLINES
1. UCLA’s bid to go to the Rose Bowl fell apart late while Nebraska thought it had played its way out of bowl berth entirely, at least until the NCAA stepped in. The Bruins settled for a spot in the Foster Farms Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Dec. 26 after coming up one game short of playing in the Pac-12 title game. The Cornhuskers are one of three five-win programs that benefited from the NCAA’s decision to use Academic Progress Rate as the main tiebreaking mechanism to help it reach the 80 teams needed to fill out 40 bowl games.
2. Nebraska is assured of finishing with a losing record for the third time since 1962, but its seven losses have come by a total of 31 points under first-year coach Mike Riley. The Cornhuskers became only the second FBS program since 2006 to lose four times on the final play of regulation or in overtime. The results started to get better as some key players began to get healthy near the end of the season, highlighted by Nebraska’s 39-38 comeback win over Big Ten champion Michigan State on Nov. 7.
3. UCLA, which has won 11 consecutive non-conference contests - which includes a home win over Nebraska in 2013 to complete a two-game series sweep – controlled its own destiny in the Pac-12 South entering the final weekend of the regular season before falling to eventual champion USC. The Bruins are 0-2 at this event, losing to Florida State in the 2006 Emerald Bowl and Illinois in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl – both of which were played in San Francisco. Coach Jim Mora can notch his 38th career victory with UCLA in this contest, however, and break his tie with Terry Donahue for the most wins over his first four seasons at the school.
TV: 9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN. LINE: UCLA -6.5
ABOUT UCLA (8-4, 5-4 Pac-12): The Bruins witnessed a number of record-setting performances this season as kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn became the conference’s all-time leading scorer and receiver Jordan Payton become the school’s all-time receptions leader. Quarterback Josh Rosen threw two interceptions against the Trojans to stop his streak of not throwing one at 245 attempts, one of several school records he broke en route to earning Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year honors. Paul Perkins ranks third in the conference in rushing (1,275 yards) while first-team All-Pac 12 junior defensive tackle Kenny Clark is the leader of a defense that is tied for first in the conference in fewest yards allowed per play (4.9).
ABOUT NEBRASKA (5-7, 3-5 Big Ten): Tommy Armstrong Jr. operates the Big Ten’s second-ranked total offense and is the only Cornhusker to record two seasons with at least 3,000 total yards, but threw nine of his 16 interceptions over the final three contests. Jordan Westerkamp tied Nate Swift for the most single-season receptions in school history (63) in Nebraska’s 28-20 loss to Iowa in the regular-season finale while tight end Cethan Carter began to emerge as a valuable big-play threat for Armstrong as the regular season drew to a close. Although defensive tackles Vincent Valentine and Maliek Collins combined to miss seven games in 2015, Nebraska still ranks eighth in the country in run defense (113.4 yards per game).
PREDICTION: UCLA 34, Nebraska 31