Pac-12 Football Picks: UCLA Ready to Flex Its Muscles as Chip Kelley Begins Year 4

Bruins are 18-point favorites over Hawaii in the first game involving a Pac-12 team.

Courageous or foolish, we are back again to begin making our weekly Pac-12 football game picks.

Jake and I fared no better than Cal a year ago, each finishing two games under .500 at 15-17. The season was shortened by the pandemic and we’re not above blaming that for our uneven performance.

We tip-toe into the 2021 Pac-12 season with just a single game on the docket for Week 0 of the college football schedule. UCLA takes on Hawaii at the Rose Bowl on Saturday afternoon.

As always, we make our picks against the spread, which provides us a convenient excuse when things go awry.

But all that’s behind us: This is a new year and you can count on informed picks from both of this fall. Hey, we’re undefeated so far.

All picks against the spread

Lines taken from vegasinsider.com

Saturday

Hawaii (plus-18) at UCLA (12:30 p.m., ESPN)

Jake: Former Arizona State head coach Todd Graham is Hawaii’s head coach, but he was gone from ASU before Chip Kelly arrived at UCLA. UCLA typically starts slowly, but Kelly and four-year starting quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson know good start is critical this season. Hawaii was picked to finish fifth in its six-team division of the Mountain West. Pick: UCLA

Jeff: Amazingly, coach Chip Kelley is winless in non-conference games since arriving at UCLA prior to the 2018 season. His Bruins lost to Cincinnati, Oklahoma and Fresno State in his debut season, then Cincinnati, San Diego State and Oklahoma in 2019. Pac-12 teams didn’t play a non-conference schedule last season. But the Bruins began to look like a Chip Kelly team last season, at least on offense, where they scored 25 points or more in all seven games, 34 or more five times. With fourth-year starting quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson at the helm, the Bruins will put up enough points here to cover a big spread. Pick: UCLA

Cover photo of UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson by Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo