The Utah Utes and UCLA Bruins meet in week 9 PAC-12 college football action from Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday night.
The UCLA Bruins come into this game looking to shake off a rough 34-31 loss to Oregon in their last game. Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s thrown for 1639 yards, 14 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 59.4% passing while also rushing for 364 yards and 6 TDs. Zach Charbonnet leads UCLA with 732 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns while Brittain Brown has 513 rushing yards and 6 scores for the Bruins on the year. Kyle Philips and Greg Dulcich make up the pair of 400+ yard receivers for the Bruins this year while UCLA has another four 100+ yard receivers on the year as well. On defense, Qwuantrezz Knight leads the Bruins with 42 total tackles while Datona Jackson has 3.5 sacks and Bo Calvert has 3 sacks on the year.
The Utah Utes will try to rebound from a 42-34 loss at the hands of Oregon State in their last game. Cameron Rising has thrown for 1,139 yards, 11 touchdowns and 2 interceptions on 64.3% passing while Tavion Thomas leads the Utes in rushing with 405 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns. Three more Utes, including the aforementioned Rising, each have 200+ rushing yards as well this season. Utah’s receiving corps features four 200+ yard receivers led by Dalton Kincaid who has a team-high 287 receiving yards and another three 100+ yard receivers on the year. On defense, Utah is led by Devin Lloyd, who has a team-high 69 total tackles as well as 4 sacks and a pair of interceptions while Mika Tafua has a team-high 5.5 sacks on the year.
UCLA is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 road games and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games overall while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record. Utah is 11-2 ATS in their last 13 games following a win and 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games overall while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games against a team with a winning record.
I get the case that could be made for Utah here as the Utes don’t really have a bad loss or bad performance on their resume this season, but in all fairness, aside from the loss to a pretty good Fresno state team, neither does UCLA. Dorian Thompson-Robinson just adds another wrinkle to UCLA’s offense and while I’m liking what I’m seeing from Cameron Rising, I just think this is too many points in what I see is a 3-4 point win for the Utes at most. Give me the Bruins and the points.