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Jacob Thorpe’s Week 4 Pac-12 football picks

The felony charge was dropped earlier this week.

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“I’m blessed just to have them on my team”, Solomon said. “The game – I don’t want to say it’s slowing down – but I can pick it up”. But since Rodriguez became coach, Arizona has been one of the nation’s best rushing teams, first with Ka’Deem Carey and now with Nick Wilson.

QB Brett Hundley isn’t around anymore, but running back and fellow Chandler High School grad Paul Perkins is a handful.

Though last season’s game was a low-scoring affair, UCLA walked away winning 17-7.

Last season, the Wildcats averaged 40.6 points and 541.9 yards before they faced the Bruins. Through two full games, Mangum has completed 37 of 75 passes for 553 yards to along with three touchdowns and three interceptions.

Prediction: Rich Rodriguez hasn’t beaten Jim Mora in his coaching career.

After Josh Rosen’s spectacular college debut against Virginia, UCLA’s true freshman quarterback has been mediocre in wins over UNLV and Brigham Young. He is averaging about 21 carries per game, but his workload could go up this week as he figures to be needed for the whole game and not just about a half of work, as in the past two weeks.

UCLA relies on the formula it used for success against BYU, with a strong ground game and tight red zone defense, to pull out a victory in the desert. The junior, a former receiver, has been good in coverage because of his athleticism, but his physical play has been a pleasant surprise. The Utes move to 3-0 this season.

Arizona – Has yet to play a team with a pulse so a 3-0 non-conference result has little meaning. Saturday’s matchup in Tucson will be one that puts the victor in the driver’s seat of the Pac-12 South division. Headline gamblers that loved Arizona prior to this personnel news love the Cats even more now, but the real reason to like Zona can be found in stats that predate these developments. All-American Scooby Wright returned to practice this week after having surgery to fix torn meniscus in his left knee the first week of the season. The Trojans are 5.5-point favorites for the game.

“They’re fundamentally sound. Watching film of a year ago, they flat-out embarrassed us”.

I’m not going to lie to you, we’ve got a light slate to get through this weekend. GameDay is coming to town, and there will be a lot of buzz about it all week.

The Bruins will play their first game of the year in the Pauley Pavilion when the Women of Troy visit; they played their first two home games of the season in the John Wooden Center. Arizona leads the Pac-12 and is seventh nationally with 321 yards rushing per game and set a school record with 499 yards against Northern Arizona last week.

The Bruins are an entirely different beast. On the year, Arizona has only one sack against an FBS opponent – the nearly safety against Nevada – despite playing a relatively inexperienced UTSA and an outclassed Nevada. The Pac-12 opener at the Galen Center finished 0-3, and the team finished its regular season with a 2-3 loss in Westwood. He will need to be much better on the road this Saturday, where the Bruins are 8-0 SU and 5-3 ATS over their last eight games per the OddsShark College Football Database.

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So far in 2015, Arizona leads the Pac-12 in turnover margin at +4.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports