UCLA vs. Arizona State College Football Week 10: Storylines to Watch

No. 12 UCLA football (7-1, 4-1 Pac-12) is scheduled to kick off its Week 10 game against Arizona State (3-5, 2-3 Pac-12) on Saturday at 7:40 p.m.

The Bruins bounced back from their road loss to Oregon with a one-sided victory over rival Stanford last week. The Sun Devils, meanwhile, have won two out of three after opening the season 1-4 and firing head coach Herm Edwards.

Heading into the Week 10 matchup, here are the most pressing questions we want to have answered by the final whistle.

Will Zach Charbonnet stay red hot?

Over the past month or so, the Bruins have had arguably the best running back in the country handling the ball-carrying duties.

Charbonnet is leading the Pac-12 in rushing yards, yards per carry and total yards from scrimmage. His 964 rushing yards rank No. 10 in the country, his 137.7 rushing yards per game rank No. 3 and his 7.53 yards per carry rank No. 1.

In conference play alone, Charbonnet has broken the 100-yard threshold all five times out, racking up 184 scrimmage yards per game. The former Michigan transfer has also found the end zone nine times in that span, asserting himself as one of the most efficient offensive engines in the nation.

The Sun Devils do not have an elite run defense, but they do boast an improved one. Across their last four games, Arizona State has allowed 121.5 rushing yards per game, 3.95 yards per carry and only one 100-yard rusher.

Washington's Wayne Taulapapa, Stanford's Casey Filkins and Colorado's Deion Smith are not having half as successful seasons as Charbonnet, though, so the Bruins will bring a better running back to the table than any of the Sun Devils' recent opponents.

Washington, Utah and Oregon all have better run defenses than Arizona State on a yards per game basis, and Charbonnet rushed for 124, 151 and 198 yards against those three teams. He should be able to do the same against the Sun Devils, and considering the Bruins are 12-1 when he rushes for 100-plus the past two years, that means good things for the team as a whole.

Is Trenton Bourguet the real deal?

The Sun Devils' offense has improved drastically since the former walk-on stepped in for an injured Emory Jones against Washington.

Bourguet fired it all over the field against the Huskies, leading his team to a shootout, upset win in the process. After Jones came back and lost to Stanford, Bourguet made his triumpant return against Colorado and put up big numbers in a win yet again.

In those two games, Bourguet completed 73.4% of this passes for 617 yards, six touchdowns and a 179.1 passer rating. If he had played the whole season at that level, Bourguet would be in the running for Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, if not the Heisman Trophy.

UCLA's defense has beaten top-tier quarterbacks in the conference in Washington's Michael Penix Jr., Utah's Cameron Rising and Stanford's Tanner McKee, but got torn apart by Oregon's Bo Nix. Bourguet may not be as talented as Nix, but he does play a similar style of throwing quick and throwing often.

It's been two weeks since the Bruins allowed Nix to throw five touchdowns on 78.6% completion with a 222.4 passer rating. They rebounded with a solid performance against McKee, but this feels like their first real chance to show that things have changed since the crushing loss in Eugene.

Can the Bruins avoid falling into the trap?

It's no secret why UCLA enters Saturday night as a heavy favorite.

The Bruins have almost every statistical advantage on paper, and the talent gap is definitely in their favor. Between coach Chip Kelly and interim coach Shaun Aguano, the former is far more likely to win the battle of Xs and Os.

But heading into the desert with title aspirations is dangerous, whether the coaches and players will admit it or not.

While it was in Tucson and not Tempe, it's hard to overlook when the 8-0 Bruins got blown out 52-14 by the 2-6 Wildcats on this same exact date back in 2005. Oregon was making a late push to secure a spot in the 2019 College Football Playoff, sitting at 9-1, before losing at Arizona State in November.

The vast majority of predictions are going in favor of UCLA – including All Bruins' – and that can understandably make fans feel uneasy.

This is a classic "trap game," and it will take a lot of focus and effort for UCLA to avoid getting stuck with another road loss. This won't be the same environment they faced up in Eugene, but the Bruins have still yet to prove they can win in a true road game.

By all means, they should win this one handily, but they can't get caught looking ahead to the USC game or Pac-12 championship.

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