No. 13 UCLA Bruins vs. UNLV Rebels
Losing Brett Hundley from last year’s team had to have felt like a crushing blow for No. 13 UCLA. The Bruins are looking to finally inch closer to that national title conversation. Luckily for the Bruins, Jim Mora has found a capable quarterback in the form of true freshman Josh Rosen to fill Hundley’s shoes. He did so in week one with an impressive victory over Virginia.
The UNLV Rebels, on the other hand, may be considered more of a basketball school at this point seeing as they finished the 2014 season with just two wins by a total of four points. Returning 14 starters on both sides of the ball could either be a blessing or a curse as this is a chance to get better as a team or suffer the same fate as they did a season ago.
Details for Saturday’s game are below:
Date: Sept. 12
Start Time: 10:30 p.m. ET
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Stadium: Sam Boyd Stadium
TV Info: CBS Sports Network
Live Stream: WatchESPN app
Radio: For the UCLA radio affiliate, click here. For the UNLV radio affiliate, click here.
Ticket Information: For UCLA ticket info, click here. For UNLV ticket info, click here.
Keys to Victory
Josh Rosen passed for 365 yards and three touchdowns in his UCLA debut and dazzled the home crowd with his accurate arm and unteachable ability to get the ball to the open receiver with ease. Rosen completed 28-of-35 passes to 11 different targets.
Just keep doing what works. The Bruins should stick to the pass-first offense that got them a big victory in week one and don’t try to get too fancy. Let Rosen gain some confidence against an extremely poor UNLV secondary that allowed 360 passing yards against Northern Illinois.
Losing to Northern Illinois in week one wasn’t the worst thing the Rebels have done in the past couple of years, but they showed progress, losing by just one score as opposed to two last season — baby steps.
Senior, and second-year starting quarterback, Blake Decker will need to air the ball out a bit as he did in week one if the Rebels want to have a chance to keep this game close on the road. UCLA’s run defense was stout in week one, so don’t expect Keith Whitely to have a breakout game. Decker will need to spread the ball around and protect the rock as well.
Betting Odds
Point Spread: UCLA -30
Moneyline: UCLA 0, UNLV 0
O/U: 66
Prediction
Following a spectacular debut in a Bruins’ uniform, Rosen will, once again, leave UCLA fans wanting more. No, he won’t leave anything to be desired, but he will do so well, however, that people all around the country will be in awe of the true freshman quarterback.
Don’t be shocked when he slices and dices the Rebels’ defense and puts up huge first half numbers that would make any quarterback blush in his first road game
Final Score: UCLA 44, UNLV 14
More from College Football
- Jim Harbaugh facing 4-game suspension over NCAA violations
- College football neutral site games in 2023: Full list
- College GameDay announces surprise Week 1 destination
- College football analyst warns Oklahoma that Texas is doing better prep for SEC
- College Football Playoff national championship game locations for 2024, 2025 and beyond