UCLA Football Faces New Road Environment in Pivotal Game Against Utah

The last time the Bruins made the trip to Salt Lake City with the division title on the line, things didn't go so well for the visiting team.

The Chip Kelly and Dorian Thompson-Robinson-led squad had to win in order to stay mathematically eligible to win the Pac-12 South in 2019. They were 4-2 in-conference and boasted a three-game winning streak heading into the showdown.

They lost 49-3.

"I try and forget, forget games like that," said striker Martell Irby. "The big wins and the big losses, just trying to be able to press forward after them and yeah, not allow them to linger around in your mind, don't want to be thinking about that when we head back to Utah."

Two years later, UCLA football (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) will again take on Utah (4-3, 3-2) on the road in yet another high-stakes divisional matchup. While the Bruins wouldn't be completely eliminated with a loss to the Utes on Saturday, their destiny would be further removed from their own hands and would depend even more heavily on division leaders Arizona State and Utah posting losing records in November.

Kelly said he is not looking back to the 2019 matchup at all, either in disappointment or to take away any lessons about big stages with big consequences.

"You always have to win to stay in contention for the Pac-12 South," Kelly said. "We're not talking about something that happened two years ago, one year ago, five years ago. Gotta win all your games in league ... and pick your head up in December and see if that's good enough."

Technically, teams don't always have to win to stay in contention for the Pac-12 South – had UCLA beaten Arizona State and Oregon, they would have a stranglehold on first place and a nice cushion to go along with it, instead of the uphill battle they're facing in the standings yet again.

There are a handful of factors that may be different this time around for the Bruins, however.

For one, UCLA is a winning team. Utah, on the other hand, is not a potential College Football Playoff contender like they were in 2019.

Thompson-Robinson's status is also up in the air for the game. He suffered a hand injury against Oregon last week, and although he has started throwing in practice and was listed as the starter on the official two-deep, Thompson-Robinson was far from 100% when last seen Wednesday.

It isn't as if Thompson-Robinson lit up the Utes two years ago, considering he posted one of the worst passer ratings of his career while turning the ball over four times and not leading the offense into the end zone once. A rematch would either spark spooky flashbacks for Thompson-Robinson, or push him to redeem himself.

With or without Thompson-Robinson, though, the Bruins will still be playing in a stadium with the most reliable crowd in the Pac-12 this season. The Utes have announced 100% attendance at every home game so far this year, and taking out the pandemic-impacted 2020 season, they haven't lost at Rice-Eccles Stadium in front of their fans since Sept. 15, 2018.

"They have, like you said, a really packed, loud stadium, so it makes the stadium a little more exciting," said receiver Kyle Philips. "Utah’s a great football program, they always have a great defense and really tough players, always play really hard, so it’s always a fun game being able to play them, especially being out there with those fans involved too, get it real loud."

Utah's overall record is middling, but they're 3-1 since Cameron Rising took over as the starting quarterback after nonconference play.

Rising averaged 239.3 passings yards and 47.8 rushing yards with seven passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns and two interceptions in those four games as the starter. After initially kicking off his college career at Texas and struggling with injuries once transferring to Utah, Rising has finally solidified himself as a high-level weapon, Kelly said.

"He's a dynamic player," Kelly said. "I think he's obviously similar to most college quarterbacks now, he can beat you with his arm and his legs. Seems like he's a really accurate passer, he's got a really good grasp of what (offensive coordinator) Andy Ludwig's asking him to do in that offense and they seemed like once they inserted him into the lineup, they've taken off offensively."

Linebacker Bo Calvert, who co-leads the Bruins with 5.5 tackles for loss and ranks second on the team with 3.0 sacks, gave a clear path to success against a quarterback who brings as much to the table as Rising.

"Eventually, every QB's gonna quit under a certain amount of pressure and a certain amount of confusion," Calvert said. "Hopefully we can keep that going for him and it'd be good for us."

UCLA and Utah will kick off at Rice-Eccles Stadium at 7 p.m. on ESPN. The winner will hold the head-to-head tiebreaker in a tight race for the Pac-12 South crown, while the loser will get bumped to third place.

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