Pac-12 After Dark special: UCLA looks for momentum vs. Khalil Tate-less Arizona
By Ethan Lee
Chip Kelly and UCLA are looking for their second consecutive win and are actually favored over an Arizona team that has three times as many wins as the Bruins. Get ready for Pac-12 After Dark.
The Arizona Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins are providing us with this week’s Pac-12 After Dark special. That’s right. Two teams that combine to give us a 4-9 overall record are hoping to get you to watch them late at night and these teams (and the Pac-12) are relying on my ability to sell you on watching them.
Well, they’re not really relying on me to do that. None of those parties are paying for me to write this, but all of those entities are hoping that you are going to watch this game between two abysmal teams.
No, this game isn’t going to have lasting impacts on the Pac-12 South like last week’s Pac-12 After Dark game. Yes, there’s a chance that UCLA and Arizona will combine to turn the ball over at least five times. No, neither of the defenses involved in this game is remotely close to solid.
And yet, despite all of that, there’s actually a few good reasons why you should stay up for this game.
The Wildcats and the Bruins might actually be two evenly matched teams here. In the most recent version of SBNation’s Bill Connelly’s S&P+ rankings, Arizona comes in at No. 87 and UCLA sits at No. 76. Yes, there’s a difference of 11 spots between the two teams, but a week ago, UCLA was No. 85 and Arizona was No. 70.
These two teams have proven to be volatile and will likely make several jumps, both up and down, in those rankings until the season ends. But, if one thing is certain, it’s that neither of these teams is any good and are currently together in the same neighborhood of being really bad when it comes to college football.
The fact that their defenses are equally horrible and neither offense appears to be all that respectable might just make this game a fun one to watch.
Facts that are true about Arizona vs. UCLA
- The Wildcats have 300 percent more wins than the Bruins coming.
- UCLA is favored by 10 points.
- Neither is any good.
- In fact, both teams are laughably horrible despite making splashy hires in the offseason.
- UCLA has won its most recent game while Arizona has not.
- This game will be on ESPN2.
Wait, is there really a chance that Chip Kelly can turn UCLA’s season around if the Bruins beat the Arizona Wildcats? Can Kevin Sumlin get his team to a bowl game?
There’s not exactly much hope for either of these teams down the stretch this season. Arizona still has a decent chance to make a bowl game if the Wildcats can make some miracles happen. Kevin Sumlin would need his team to win on the road against UCLA without Rhett Rodriguez starting for an injured Khalil Tate and then find a way to win two more games from a group of Oregon, Colorado, Washington State and Arizona State.
Beating Arizona State is possible. Taking a game from Oregon, Colorado State or Washington State probably isn’t.
Unfortunately for Arizona fans, there are minuscule amounts of hope that still remain and that might honestly hurt more in the end. You just need three more wins, Wildcats! Good luck getting them! You can maybe, hopefully, get a miracle and somehow get those wins?
As for UCLA, fans of the Bruins have almost certainly accepted that this season is bound for nothing by the time it’s all said and done. Unless a turnaround for the history books happens here, there’s nothing happening for the Bruins after the regular season. That means that Chip Kelly can focus all of his efforts on getting his team ready for the future. He doesn’t have to worry about a bowl game. Instead, Kelly is free to experiment and do whatever it is that he wants this year.
He can tinker with lineups, formations, and plays to his heart’s content. Nobody is really going to object to that this season. Sumlin is still in a position where he has to find ways to win now. He can still THEORETICALLY make it to a bowl game. He should do everything he can to get there.
Will this Pac-12 After Dark game have an impact on the future of Sumlin or Kelly?
Probably not, but I do hope that this can eventually develop into something of a rivalry between the two offensive gurus. Coming into the year, I believed that Sumlin and Kelly would be able to have success at their new schools. I foolishly thought that Sumlin would have a good year this year and that doesn’t seem to be the case but I knew that Kelly was in for a rebuilding period.
Maybe down the line, we’ll see these two teams winning 9-10 games a year and this particular matchup having a significant impact on the Pac-12 South standings. Granted, that’ll be pretty far down the line and it’s also probably wishful thinkings.
However, for this game, this year, this matchup is utterly meaningless to one team and crucial to another. The fact that it has no lasting impact on UCLA this year will free them up to do some crazy stuff. The fact that Arizona needs this win to keep their bowl hopes alive means that they’re going to make some desperation plays and have a sense of urgency in this game.
Make sure you watch Pac-12 After Dark this week. You can watch UCLA vs. Arizona on ESPN2 at 10:30 p.m. ET. Get some caffeine and stay up well past your bedtime for this late night special.
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