The Cardinal are 5-0 ATS in their last 5 conference games and 35-16 ATS in their last 51 home games.
Advertisement
It has been that long. So there is hope for the Bruins but it does not get any easier because they travel to the bay area to play Stanford on Thursday, October 15 and the following week they face a very good California team at the Rose Bowl in another Thursday night game.
They fell a few spots in the Top 25, but with how their schedule is now designed, this team may have one of the roughest schedules around. Take UCLA plus the points at +7. The 2014-15 Bruins posted a 3.03 team GPA to receive the distinction.
For all of UCLA’s success under coach Jim Mora, there’s one thing he hasn’t been able to change: Stanford’s dominance in this California rivalry. If you don’t like where you’re at, win the games you are supposed to. That’s always been our approach. The Cardinal has not defeated a ranked opponent at home since 2013, when it did so five times. “If you don’t, you can play with them and you can beat them”.
On the outside, Stanford will feature two underclassmen. UCLA will also be without defensive back Mossi Johnson, who tore knee ligaments in practice last week and is also done for the season.
Former UA player and assistant Joseph Blair was named an assistant coach for the D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers, whose head coach is former UA player and coach Matt Brase. While McCaffrey is Stanford’s do-everything player, Wright is the goal-line specialist.
When he was younger, Whitfield played an NCAA video game.
“The wrong thing would be just to forget about it”, said linebacker Deon Hollins. “Embrace it, and remove the feeling you had at the end of the game”. Still, they need to show themselves more capable of upsetting a higher-ranked opponent, which Mora has done only three times in the regular season. Did Carr suddenly lose his big-game ability?
Twice it was to Stanford.
“There is a slight sense of confidence, but what we build off more is what we’ve done this year as a unit as opposed to wins in the past”, right guard Johnny Caspers said.
“If you dwell on the past, whether it’s a positive past, you have to approach every game and every year as a different entity”.
Running back Christian McCaffrey reeled off his third straight 100-yard rushing performance, Barry Sanders scored on another long touchdown run and quarterback Kevin Hogan hit on 17 of 19 passes for 217 yards and two scores without an interception. But he also said the Bruins try to leave the past behind. “My willingness to buy into the progressive nature of this conference and Larry Scott saying that the Pacific Rim and China is the new kind of opportunity for all of us, and I’m like, ‘OK, we’re in, we’ll go'”.
Advertisement
The losses to Stanford, and a six-game losing streak against Oregon, have underscored a close-but-not-good-enough level the Bruins have reached against the Pac-12’s best programs. The Beavers won all four of their games and bonded on and off the court. The Cardinal though had other plans and completely outplayed them.
