Cal Football: Previewing the Bears' 2020 Opponents -- Game 12: UCLA Bruins
Game 12: UCLA at CAL, Friday, Nov. 27
UCLA 2019 record: 4-8 overall, 4-5/tied 3rd in Pac-12 South
Series record: UCLA leads 55-34-1. Cal won 28-18 last year when Bears running back Christopher Brown Jr. rushed for 111 yards and the Bears’ defense recorded six sacks. Nonetheless, UCLA has defeated Cal in five of their past seven meetings, including a 37-7 victory over the Bears the last time the teams met in Berkeley in 2018.
Justin Wilcox was pleased with the result of last year's game against UCLA.
UCLA coach: Chip Kelly has a 7-17 record entering his third season as the Bruins coach. He was 46-7 in four years as Oregon’s head coach, and the Ducks finished ranked among the top four in each of his final three seasons. Kelly was a head coach for four seasons in the NFL, going 26-21 in three seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and 2-14 in his only season with the San Francisco 49ers.
UCLA's top players: Junior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson (58.7% completion, 21 TDs, 12 interceptions, 198 rushing yards); redshirt senior running back-wide receiver Demetric Felton (331 rushing yards, 594 receiving yards); sophomore wide receiver Kyle Philips (60 catches, 681 yards, 5 TDs); junior safety Stephan Blalock (team-leading 86 tackles); redshirt senior defensive lineman Osa Odighizuwa (3.5 sacks, 10.0 tackles for loss).
UCLA's strengths: Junior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson showed flashes of brilliance in 2019, and he could make a quantum leap in his third season as a starter. . . Virtually all the wide receivers from last year’s team return, so Thompson-Robinson should have plenty of targets. . . Demetric Felton is a big play waiting to happen. Whether it is as a ball-carrier or a pass receiver, he can turn something small into something big. . . Quentin Lake and Stephan Blalock give the Bruins a solid set of safeties to protect the back line of defense. . . . Defensive lineman Osa Odighizuwa may be set for a breakout season. . . . Chip Kelly is still considered an outstanding offensive mind, and he should be able to coax something out of the Bruins’ offense in his third year on the job.
UCLA's weaknesses: The Bruins have no established stars. Running back Joshua Kelley, a second-team all-Pac-12 selection and the team’s best player the past two seasons, is gone, and so is their best defensive back, Darnay Holmes, who opted to enter the NFL draft. Kelley rushed for 157 yards in UCLA’s 37-7 win over Cal in 2018. UCLA is hoping Duke graduate transfer running back Brittain Brown can help but he has been limited by injuries the past two seasons . . . No starting linebackers from 2018 return, and that’s not a positive sign for a defense that ranked 11th in the Pac-12 in total defense, last in pass defense, and 11th in scoring defense . . . Although quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson has shown potential, he has not been the consistently productive quarterback a team needs to compete for a Pac-12 title. The fact that backup quarterback Austin Burton transferred to Purdue doesn’t help. . . Aside from Odighizuwa, UCLA’s defensive line has plenty of holes.
Cal defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter talked about UCLA running back Joshua Kelley prior to last year's game against the Bruins:
What you should know about UCLA: The Bruins have had four straight losing seasons, the first time that has happened in the history of UCLA football, which began competition in 1928. . . . UCLA has not won a conference championship since 1998, when it went 8-0 in the Pac-10 . . . Coach Chip Kelly needs a winning season to avoid calls for his ouster. Kelly lost a total of seven games in four seasons as the Oregon head coach, and two of those defeats were losses in a Rose Bowl and a national championship game. He has already lost 17 games in two years at UCLA . . . Despite the Bruins’ poor defensive performance in 2019, Jerry Azzinaro was retained as defensive coordinator, but Brian Norwood was added as defensive passing game coordinator. Norwood was co-defensive coordinator at Navy last season . . . Johnny Nansen is the new defensive line coach, which is interesting, because he was fired as an assistant coach at cross-town rival USC in February . . . UCLA’s 2020 prospects were hurt by the fact that defensive back Darnay Holmes and tight end Devin Asiasi entered the 2020 NFL draft despite having college eligibility remaining.
Spring practice status: UCLA began spring workouts on March 3, and the Bruins got four spring practices completed before the 11 remaining spring workouts were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bruins Spring Game, scheduled for April 18, was canceled.
2020 Season projection: UCLA is projected to finish in the middle of the pack in the Pac-12 South, with a third- or fourth-place finish being the expectation. The Bruins benefit from the fact that USC and Arizona State look like the only quality teams in the Pac-12 South for 2020. Not having Oregon or Washington on their 2020 schedule also helps the Bruins.
Cal-UCLA game prediction: Cal 27, UCLA 17
(Previews on Cal's earlier 2020 Opponents: Game 1 UNLV, Game 2 TCU, Game 3 Cal Poly, Game 4 Utah, Game 5 Washington State, Game 6 USC, Game 7 Oregon and Game 8 Oregon State, Game 9 Washington, Game 10 Arizona State and Game 11 Stanford.)
