For all but a handful of college football teams, turnover is a fact of life. Seniors graduate, Juniors leave early. Every year, almost every program has to replace proven talent with unproven talent and hope for the best out of recruits and former second teamers. UCLA is one of the few programs in the country that does not have this problem. 21 of 22 starters return on the Offense and Defense that beat rival USC last season. Forgive me if that fact doesn’t glare at me and put the Bruins high on this list for this fact alone, for in Westwood, the expectations are even higher.
Projected Record and Bowl Result: 11-2 Beat Missouri in Holiday Bowl
Who they’ll beat: Stanford (Road), BYU (Home), Utah (Road), Washington (Home), Notre Dame (Home), California (Home), Washington State (Road), Arizona (Road), Arizona State (Home), Oregon (Home), Missouri (San Diego, CA)
Who’ll beat them: Oregon State (Road), USC (Road)
When they Pass: Ben Olson is expected to return from his season-ending knee injury last year and win the starting job from Patrick Cowan who filled in adequately when Olson went down. Olson has a strong arm and is more talented but if he starts slow UCLA has an experienced backup to go to. A corps of experienced receivers give reason to believe UCLA will have one of the more exciting offenses in the nation this year.
When they Run: Runningback Chris Markey may hold the key to the Bruins season. He’ll have to run with more purpose than he did in 2006 for the Bruins to have the kind of respectable running attack that will more easily open up the offense for Olson and the receivers.
When their Opponents Run: Six of the front seven return from the 9th ranked run defense in the country.
When their Opponents Pass: It can be argued that UCLA has the best secondary in the Pac 10 also, it definitely has the most experienced. Trey Brown, Rodney Van, Chris Horton and Dennis Keyes are all Seniors.
When they Kick: The irony is the fate of all these seniors could rest on redshirt Freshman kicker Kai Forbath. Forbath is said to have range over 50 yards.
When they call Timeout: Despite the upset of USC, Karl Dorrell is a love him or hate him coach in Los Angeles. The win over USC actually may have saved his job and put a pretty front on a very mediocre 7-6 season. He has hired a new offensive coordinator (Jay Norvell) and a new defensive coordinator (Dewayne Walker) in hopes of converting the doubters
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1 comment:
I'm not sure this is possible but this is the gayest I've ever seen Sanjaya look.
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