You heard it here first — Utah will walk into the Rose Bowl and upset the No. 8 Bruins
Psych! Now that I’ve got your attention, let me bring all Utah fans back to reality by saying this game will not be an upset. It will not be an encouraging performance by the Utes. Hell, it probably won’t even be a close game.
I’m going to be honest, I’ve been singing the tune that UCLA is overrated for the first six weeks of the season. The Bruins haven’t looked good in most of their games, except for a dominating performance against Arizona State last week, and I was convinced this squad wasn’t as good as the preseason hype made them out to be.
However, my opinion of UCLA has changed. While I still don’t believe they are a top-10 team, the Bruins are leaps and bounds ahead of Utah.
When you break down the two teams from a talent standpoint, it’s not even close. UCLA has recruited well the last couple of years and are now seeing the rewards. Brett Hundley was dubbed by many as a Heisman candidate heading into the season, as well as potentially one of the first quarterbacks taken off the board in the 2015 NFL draft. Myles Jack is a “jack” of all trades, pun intended, and will literally be all over the field on both sides of the ball. Ishmael Adams is the Bruin version of Kaelin Clay, and he may even be better.
Those are just a few of the athletes UCLA has that will give the Utes fits tomorrow night.
Where I see Utah struggling the most will be on the offensive side of the ball. It had to have pained Ute fans last weekend when the offense was stopped by Washington State’s defense seemingly every time. The offensive line was being blown up on nearly every play, and that was against the Cougars. Unless it steps up its game tenfold, the offensive line will struggle to give T-Willy the time he needs to produce good throws.
As if the personnel and poor play from the Utes weren’t good enough reasons, Utah has never been a good road team since entering the Pac-12. Sure, they went into the Big House this season and took down Michigan, but Minnesota made that win look less impressive with its rout of the Wolverines last weekend.
They aren’t just going on the road either — the Utes are walking into the Rose Bowl, a stadium that will be full of thousands of screaming Bruin fans.
All of this said, Utah always wins one game a year that it probably shouldn’t. Maybe this is that game, but if I had to put money on it, there’s no way I’d feel comfortable putting all my marbles into the Utes’ basket.
The Rose Bowl has seen some amazing games in its time, but the matchup between Utah and UCLA will not be one of them.
g.adams@chronicle.utah.edu
@GriffDoug
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