UCLA will take on the Oregon State Beavers at the Rose Bowl after traveling to Colorado. The Beavers were the worst team in the Pac-12 last season. They started with a 26-7 win against FCS Weber State, a 35-7 loss at Michigan, and a 35-21 win against San José State. The win against SJSU was Oregon State's last victory. The Beavers lost all of their conference games, starting with a 42-24 loss to #21 Stanford. This was followed by losses to Arizona (44-7), Washington State (52-31), Colorado (17-13), #13 Utah (27-12), #23 UCLA (41-0), California (54-24), Washington (52-7), and finally, "Civil War" rival Oregon (52-42). They finished with a 2-10 record. The Beavers only lose one key player: star running back Storm Barrs-Woods. Quarterback Seth Collins returns with wide receivers Victor Bolden and Jordan Villamin.
On the following week, the Bruins will square off with their crosstown rival, the USC Trojans at the Rose Bowl. USC was the highest ranked team in the Pac-12 South Division in the preseason, sitting at #8 in the top 25. USC cruised past their Sun Belt non-conference schedule, beating Arkansas State 55-6 and Idaho 59-9 at home. Stanford was the first test of USC's season. USC failed this test, as they lost 41-31, even though they didn't play a single road game until after Stanford. The Trojans bulldozed Arizona State 42-14 in their first road game of the season. After their bye week, 17th-ranked SC lost to Washington 17-12 at home. The Monday afterwards, they fired head coach Steve Sarkisian and named former offensive coordinator, Clay Helton the interim head coach. This was the second time over the past 3 seasons in which USC fired their head coach in the middle of the season and hired an interim head coach. Anyways, USC lost 41-31 to #11 Notre Dame on the road, leaving them with 3 wins and 3 losses on the season. Because of their record, I thought USC would not be able to reach the postseason with games against Utah (a top 5 team at the time) and California coming up. But they wound up blowing out then-#3 Utah 42-24 at home and beating Cal 27-21. USC managed to reach bowl eligibility with a 38-30 win against Arizona at home. The Trojans escaped Colorado 27-24 on the road. The following week, USC re-entered the rankings at 24th, but had to play 23rd-ranked Oregon. Oregon's stampede offense crushed USC 48-28, giving the Trojans their fourth loss of the season. SC bounced back by beating UCLA 40-21 at home and taking the Pac-12 South crown. Once again, in the Pac-12 Championship, Stanford breezed past USC 41-22. The Trojans lost the Holiday Bowl to Wisconsin 23-21 and finished the season 8-6 and unranked. They will lose quarterback Cody Kessler and running back Tre Madden, but return running backs Ronald Jones II and Justin Davis as well as wide receivers Darreus Rogers and Juju Smith-Schuster.
UCLA's final opponent of the 2016 regular season is the California Golden Bears. Cal opened last season with a 73-14 demolishing of FCS Grambling State. During week 2, Cal beat up eventual Mountain west Champion San Diego State 35-7. They also won a showdown against Texas 45-44 on a missed point after touchdown (PAT) by Texas. A 30-24 win over Washington propelled the Bears to the rankings for the first time since 2009. Making sure they stayed, 24th-ranked Cal beat Washington State 34-28 in Berkeley. Now that the Golden Bears have proven they belonged in the rankings, they had to play their hardest game of the season at #5 Utah. The interception-plagued Bears lost 30-24, as quarterback Jared Goff threw 5 interceptions in that game, his most in his career. But Cal stayed where they were ranked, and moved up to 20th after their bye week. Next up was a trip to Pasadena against UCLA, who had just been blown out at Stanford. UCLA turned their season around by breezing past Cal 40-24. Back in Berkeley, USC granted Cal their third straight loss, defeating them 27-21. Oregon only made it worse for the Golden Bears, who now had a 4-game losing streak after falling 44-28. Cal finally reached bowl eligibility after a 54-24 win against Oregon State. The Bears were 6-4 and taking on rival #15 Stanford. Unfortunately, Christian McCaffrey and the Stanford offense overran Cal 35-22. After the Stanford loss, Cal had to take on Arizona State at home. The Golden Bears made a comeback from 21 points down and won 48-46. Afterwards, they accepted the bid for the Armed Forces Bowl against Air Force. Cal's air raid offense outplayed Air Force's dual option offense 55-36. Cal finished the season with the same record as UCLA: 8-5. Cal will lose many key players. Their biggest losses include quarterback Jared Goff, running back Daniel Lasco, and wide receivers Darius Powe, Bryce Treggs, Kenny Lawler, and Trevor Davis. Running backs Khalfani Muhammad and Vic Enwere will return for the Golden Bears next season.
These past 4 posts each go over all of UCLA's 2016 regular season opponents in chronological order, as well as their final results of the past season's schedules and impact players who will leave and stay with the team. I hope UCLA football will have a great season next year. Goooooooooooooooooo Bruins!!!!!!!!
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