After the BYU game, UCLA will return to the Rose Bowl to face the one team that Bruins just cannot seem to beat: the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford was ranked 21st in the preseason top 25, but lost their season opener at the Northwestern Wildcats. They defeated UCF (one of two teams to go winless last season) 31-7 in their home opener, and then shocked then-#6 USC 41-31 in Los Angeles. the Cardinal climbed back into the rankings, sitting at their preseason seat of 21st. After cruising past Oregon State 42-24 and Arizona 55-17, Stanford went on a bye week. After that, they crushed then-#18 UCLA 56-35, a record night for their sophomore running back, Christian McCaffrey. Don't forget about that catch by Francis Owusu (video is at the bottom). Moving on, Stanford jumped into the top 10 for the first time since the postseason of the 2013 season. The Cardinal beat Washington 31-14 and then survived against Washington State 30-28 on a botched field goal. Stanford beat Colorado 42-10 and jumped right back up to the top 10, only to lose to Oregon 38-36 on a failed two-point conversion. Stanford rebounded by beating their rival, Cal 35-22 and keeping the Stanford Axe. The Cardinal were ranked 9th and had to play against 6th-ranked Notre Dame. On the final play of the game, Stanford kicked a field goal to get win #10 of the season. They blew out USC in the Pac-12 Championship 41-22 to reach their third Rose Bowl game in the past four seasons. This season will be the fifth straight in which Stanford plays at least one football game at the Rose Bowl Stadium. Stanford does lose quarterback Kevin Hogan and running backs Remound Wright and Barry Sanders Jr., but they will still rely heavily on the run game, especially riding on Heisman contender Christian McCaffrey.
One week later, UCLA will host the Arizona Wildcats. Last season, Arizona opened with a 42-32 victory against the UTSA Roadrunners as #22 in the country. They were coming off of a Pac-12 South title with returning quarterback Anu Solomon. The following two weeks were easy for the Wildcats, as they defeated Nevada 44-20 in Reno and crushed FCS Northern Arizona 77-13 at home. The conference slate started off rough, as the 16th-ranked Wildcats were blown out 56-30 at home by 9th-ranked UCLA in College Gameday. UCLA beat BYU by one point the week before this showdown. Stanford added to Arizona's woes by beating up the Wildcats 55-17 in Northern California. Arizona recovered from these blowout losses by blowing out Oregon State 44-7 at home. They beat Colorado 38-31. Then, the season began to fall apart of U of A. The Wildcats lost three straight against Washington State (45-42), Washington (49-3), and USC (38-30). It seemed as if reaching the postseason would not happen for Arizona, as they were going into hosting 10th-ranked Utah. Arizona pulled off the 37-30 double overtime upset to reach their sixth win of the season. Unfortunately, even though the Wildcats beat Utah, they lost to in-state rival Arizona State 52-37. Next up was the New Mexico Bowl against the New Mexico Lobos. Yes, the Lobos were basically hosting the bowl game against Arizona, which is rare. Arizona won 45-37 and finished the season 7-6. Arizona will lose backup quarterback Jerrard Randall (who played against Stanford and most of the UCLA game) and wide receiver David Richards. Many key players will return for the Wildcats. Big returners include All-American linebacker Scooby Wright III, wide receivers Cayleb Jones and Nate Phillips, quarterback Anu Solomon, and running back Nick Wilson.
UCLA will play at the Arizona State Sun Devils after Arizona. Last season, ASU was ranked 15th preseason, two spots below UCLA's rank. They started off blown out 38-17 by Texas A&M in the AdvoCare Texas Kickoff in Houston. The Sun Devils fell out of the top 25 and stayed out all season. They barely beat FCS Cal Poly 35-21 in their home opener, but made a change in a 34-10 victory over New Mexico. ASU lost 42-14 to #19 USC at home. However, the Sun Devils beat #7 UCLA 38-23 at the Rose Bowl, which was still not enough to catapult ASU back into the rankings. Things seemed to be coming back together after a 48-23 win against Colorado, but Arizona State was to travel to #4 Utah. The Sun Devils had a temporary 18-14 lead over the Utes, but lost it as the Utes won the game 34-18. On the week of Halloween, ASU was to host Oregon in a game dedicated to Sun Devil legend Pat Tillman. But they lost 61-55 on a bad call in triple overtime. Washington State sent ASU below .500 winning percentage by beating the Sun Devils 38-24. Arizona State beat Washington 27-17 and rival Arizona 52-37 to reach bowl eligibility, but lost to Cal 48-46. The Sun Devils finished the season by losing the Cactus Bowl 43-42 to West Virginia. ASU will lose many key players. Quarterback Mike Bercovici and wide receivers DJ Foster, Gary Chambers and Devin Lucien (a graduate transfer from UCLA) will all being graduating. On the bright side, running backs Kalen Ballage (who did that bush TD run against UCLA) and Demario Richard will return as well as wide receiver Tim White.
Remember this catch? I still wonder how Owusu
managed to catch that.
managed to catch that.
Kalen Ballage's version of the "Bush Touchdown"
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