UCLA
There are a lot of good things to celebrate regarding UCLA’s first two games of the season. As I mentioned in this year’s preview, last year the Bruins put together the nation’s 12th best running game and averaged 35 points a contest. Through their first two games of this season against Hawaii and LSU they are rushing for well over 200 yards a game and averaging 41 points. They are also averaging slightly over 200 yards in the air, although it took an entire half for UCLA’s QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson to get started in their win against Hawaii. Fortunately it only took him a quarter in this past Saturday’s upset of LSU in the Rose Bowl where he didn’t throw it a lot, but those measly nine connections yielded 260 yards and 3 TD’s.
First the good. Wow, UCLA Junior RB Zach Charbonnet-what a beast! Over the last two weeks Charbonnet has averaged less than 9 carries a game but has accounted for 223 yards on the ground and 4 TD’s! Adding SR RB Brittain Brown’s numbers into the mix (174 yards and 2 TD’s) as well as the rest of the squad-most noteably a great offensive line-and UCLA has out rushed their two opponents 454 yards to 75 and Charbonnet is averaging a very heady 13+ yards per carry.
In the air over those two games DTR has thrown for 390 yards, 4 TD’s, and 1 pick against his opponent’s 550 yards, 4 TD’s and 3 picks. And although Sophomore QB’s Chevan Cordeiro for Hawaii and Max Johnson for LSU threw more times for more yards at about the same completion percentage, DTR’s average pickup per throw is about 10 yards more than his opponents-allowing his receivers like Junior TE Greg Dulcich and Junior WR Kyle Philips to connect further downfield, giving them more room to pick up yards after the catch which resulted in a combined 150 yards+ and 2 TD’s on only 5 receptions against LSU. Charbonnet also got into that mix, picking up 35 yards on only 1 reception.
Even with all this good news on the offensive side of the ball, the real improvement is where they needed it the most—on the defense–where they have held their two opponents to 26 yards and 49 yards respectively on the ground (less than 2 yards per carry) with an outstanding rushing defense and the QB’s to a completion percentage of just slightly over 50% with solid play in the secondary. Oh yeah, they’ve also forced five fumbles, picked up 4 sacks and recorded 11 tackles for loss.
As far as the bad? I’m not going to dwell on UCLA’s first possession against Hawaii where they were gifted a first down, just 15 yards away from the end zone, after Hawaii’s punter accidently touched his knee to the turf on a low snap—but couldn’t cash it in! Nor will I dwell on DTR’s first half of the same game where he couldn’t do squat and his first quarter aginst LSU. Instead I will adopt the attitude of that great Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Plaschke whose recent headline read; “Hope has arrived. All aboard the UCLA Bandwagon.” In year four of Chip Kelly’s process, maybe it is all explained best by Ben Bolch in his article about the game. “It was the realization of one of Chip Kelly’s favorite motivational mantras involving the giant timber bamboo. If you water the bamboo in the first year, nothing happens. If you water it in the second year, nothing happens. If you water it in the third year, nothing happens. If you water it in the fourth year, it grows 90 feet in six weeks. In Kelly’s fourth year at UCLA, after a whole lot of nothing, the bamboo was visible throughout the Buin’s 38-27 victory over No. 16 Louisiana State.”
Utah
Utah’s home opener with last year’s Big Sky Conference Champion Weber State probably felt more like a family scrimmage to both head coaches. Not only did Weber State Head Coach Jay Hill play for the Utes, as pointed out by Jeff Call of the DeseretNews, he also became an assistant coach for Utah’s Head Coach Kyle Whittingham. Hill’s assistant coaches Andre Dyson, Joe Dale, and Robert Conley—also former players at Utah as well as long time assistant coach Gary Andersen, recently hired as a volunteer to assist the defensive coaching staff.
But come game time as Michael Corleone said; “It’s not personal . . . it’s strictly business,” and Utah easily prevailed 40-17. With a portal transfer from Baylor, Charlie Brewer, as QB and an “old” but new Offensive Coordinator Andy Ludwig in for his first full year at Utah since 2008, the offense was definitely not stodgy. As noted by the Salt Lake City Tribune; “On Utah’s first offensive snap, a first down from the Weber State 36-yard line, the Utes went with five wide receivers and Brewer in the shotgun.” Brewer ended up connecting on 70% of his passes going 19 of 27 for two TD’s and one pick. But with four dropped balls, two for TD’s, he could have connected on 85% of his attempts in what easily should have been a 54-17 blowout. They did end up 7-for-8 in the red zone but as Head Coach Kyle Whittingham noted later, they don’t count field goals when determining their success inside the twenty.
As far as the rest of the box score goes Utah picked up twice as many first downs, 28 to 14; had 450 yards of total offense compared to Weber State’s 270; and out rushed their opponent 188 yards to 57 with the lion’s share being picked up by Sophomore RB Tavion Thomas who averaged 8.9 yards per his 12 carries-picking up 2 TD’s along the way. With Weber State averaging less than two yards per carry on the ground and Utah picking up three sacks and seven tackles for loss on the other side of the ball, the Utes pretty much had control the whole way. All in all a good warm-up for next week’s match-up on the road in Provo against BYU.
USC
Yes, USC won their home opener-as they should have-against San Jose State 30-7. But the fact that they only scored a combined 3 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters and were leading by only six points going into the 4th against a squad that hasn’t beaten a PAC-12 team in 15 years should be of concern. On the plus side for the Trojans, the defense kept them in the game as USC was only outscored 7-3 during that span and then finally erupted in a fourth quarter where Kedon Slovis picked up his second TD of the day and Senior Safety Greg Johnson had a late game 37 yard pick six to ice the game.
On the day USC QB Kedon Slovis completed 24 of 36 for 256 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions against his opponent, Nick Starkel, who threw for more yards but couldn’t cash in—adding insult to injury with two picks. On the USC receiving end for the majority of those yards was Junior WR Drake Londen who picked up 12 receptions for 137 yards with Senior TE Eric Krommenhoek and Sophomore WR Tajh Washington picking up most of the rest with 82 yards collectively along with a TD a piece-one an exciting 20 yard sliding catch in the end zone by Krommenhoek with slightly over two minutes to play. On the ground USC Senior RB’s Keaontay Ingram and Vavae Malepeai combined on 29 carries for 151 of the 160 total yards rushing. San Jose State helped the Trojans along with two interceptions and one lost fumble with Sophomore Place Kicker Parker Lewis keeping the Trojans out front by connecting on all three of his field goal attempts when the Trojans got close but couldn’t do any better.
Most of the write-ups I read credit USC’s defense and solid running game for this win and yet San Jose State had two sacks to none for USC and seven tackles for loss against two for the Trojans. Yes, USC outrushed San Jose State 160 yards to 68, but it was the Spartans who got the lone rushing TD. I’m really not sure what to make of it right now other than loosing their two top receivers via the portal has created a void in their receiving corp that they’re going to have to figure out. ESPN probably summed it up best when they wrote; “Final score aside, the Trojans produced yet another edition of their September special for the past decade: An unconvincing victory that tempers the overwrought preseason expectations around this high-profile program and likely pushes it slightly downward in the rankings.”
Arizona State
Junior QB Jayden Daniels didn’t score in the Sun Devil’s 41-14 win against Southern Utah but he was ever efficient in running the offense and moving the chains while connecting on 80% of his passing attempts for 132 yards and no interceptions. You might say Arizona State ran their opponents into the ground while rushing 40 times for 222 yards and six TD’s, two each by Senior RB Rashaad White and Sophomore RB Deamonte Trayanum against 78 yards and 2 TD’s for the Thunderbirds. Southern Utah’s Sophomore QB Justin Miller completed 19-of-30 for 146 yards but couldn’t hit paydirt and threw up three interceptions as he was constantly avoiding pressure in the pocket from the Sun Devil pass rush.
Although there was only about 10 seconds difference in time of possession between the two, Arizona State had seven more first downs, three yards shy of 200 more yards, and picked up an average of 5.6 yards per rush compared to 3.0 for Southern Utah. Another statistical category the Sun Devils led in which will need to be cleaned up immediately is penalties where they were flagged 13 times for 135 yards which included a targeting call and ejection. As pointed out by All Sun Devils FanNation it was; “the highest amount of penalty yardage for the Sun Devils since 2006. There were 11 for 120 yards in the first half alone.” You can credit Senior Linebacker Darien Butler’s four solo tackles, five overall, and two interceptions for keeping the Thunderbirds at bay in between all the mistakes and errors of judgement. Up next for Arizona State is UNLV at home before they head to Provo, UT to take on BYU.
Colorado
Colorado’s Head Coach Karl Doerrl got his second season, first full season, off to a good start with a convincing 35-7 win against Northern Colorado, a win that not only featured Freshman QB Brendon Lewis but new Defensive Coordinator Chris Wilson whose rushing defense held the Bears to just 20 yards on the ground in 18 attempts-less than 1 yard per carry-and scoreless in three of the four quarters.
Northern Colorado’s Dylan McCaffrey, son of new head coach and former NFL Wide Receiver Ed McCafferey, threw for more than twice the yards of his counterpart connecting on 24-of-42 for 236 yards, 1 TD, and one pick compared to 102 yards and 1 TD for Lewis. But the Buffaloes rushed 49 times for 281 yards and 4 TD’s by four different players; Sophomore RB’s Jarek Broussard and Deion Smith, Freshman RB Ashaad Clayton, and Junior RB Alex Fontenot.
The Buffaloes recorded seven more first downs, 125+ more total yards, and much like Arizona State also led in penalties with 12 for 118 yards. As mentioned in the AP writeup posted in 9News; “The Buffs won going away but they got off to a slow start and allowed a program-high seven first downs by penalty. So, coach Karl Dorrell, who was Ed McCaffrey’s receivers coach with the Denver Broncos all those years ago, has some teaching points as the schedule gets immediately tougher as they head to Mile High Stadium in Denver to take on Texas A&M.”
Arizona
It may not have been much of a game but wow, what a stadium. The Raider’s 65,000 seat state-of-the-art facility served host to this past weekend’s matchup between BYU and Arizona. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted; “Now that Las Vegas Bowl executive director John Saccenti has Allegiant Stadium as his selling point, he expects Arizona-BYU to be only the start for even more marquee college football matchups . . . [helping] the city’s economy by drawing more visitors to the valley.”
BYU got their season off to a good start with a 24-16 win over Arizona. Red Shirt Sophomore QB Jaren Hall connected on 18-of-28 for 198 yards and 2 TD’s with both of those going to Junior WR Neil Pau’u who averaged 15+ yards per reception on the night. Sophomore RB Tyler Allgeier added 94 yards on the ground and another score. Arizona Freshman QB Gunner Cruz connected for more, going 34-of-45 for 336 yards, but got into the end zone only once and threw up an interception while getting sacked four times. The Wildcats were out-rushed 161 yards to 81, hampered by BYU’s 8 tackles for loss.
As mentioned in our preview this is going to be a tough year for former New England Patriot’s QB coach and new Arizona Head Coach Jedd Fisch who not only inherits a bad team but a schedule that will probably have his head spinning by the end of October. Up next Northern Arizona, maybe his only chance for a win all year. After that he’s got Oregon, UCLA, Colorado, Washington and USC with three of those on the road. In November he’s got Cal, Utah, and Washington State. I think he easily looses eight of those. Even at that he’ll still have more wins than his predecessor, Kevin Sumlin.