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Utah
UCLA
Pick Center
NCAAF
FINAL (10/22/2016)
UCLA was the pick of the Pac-12 media to win the conference's South division. But the Bruins are 1-3 in the league for the first time in coach Jim Mora's five seasons, and they will be trying to salvage any long-shot conference hopes when they play host to No. 19 Utah at the Rose Bowl on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. The Utes (6-1, 3-1) are tied with upstart Colorado atop the South standings, with USC only a half-game behind." We have some tough games ahead of us looking us in the face," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. As of early in the week, it was unknown if UCLA (3-4) would have quarterback Josh Rosen available Saturday. Mora said he was "very, very hopeful" Rosen would be able to play after missing last week's 27-21 loss at Washington State because of shoulder/leg injuries. Former walk-on Mike Fafaul completed 24 for 40 for 258 yards, with three touchdowns and two interceptions, against the Cougars. The bigger issue for the Bruins is that they rushed for just 43 yards, which has become something of a trend. UCLA is the third-worst rushing team in the country, averaging 91.1 yards per game. The Bruins have rushed 48 times for 42 yards in the past two games. Bad news for them: Utah is stout against the run, allowing 130.1 yards per game on the ground. The talent at running back -- Nate Starks, Soso Jamabo and Bolu Olorunfunmi -- is not the problem. Mora is promising changes to scheme, not necessarily personnel." When you can't run the ball it's tough to do anything consistent on offense," he said." We have looked at it very, very carefully. We think we've identified some things that we can do that can help us have more success running the football, which hopefully will help us throw the ball more effectively. Hopefully, it'll help us give the defense better field position, increase our time of possession ... do those types of things that can give us a better chance of winning." Mora said the offense would be implementing different kinds of things in the run game, but that he "didn't want to talk about them." Utah has had its own issues in the run game because of injuries. The situation was so dire last week that the team coaxed running back Joe Williams back onto the team. He had retired because of injuries after the second game of the season, but he rushed 34 times for 179 yards as the Utes won 19-14 in wet and blustery conditions at Oregon State on Saturday." I made the decision more for the team than myself -- just put it all on the line for them," Williams said Monday. Utah rushing leader Armand Shyne is out for the rest of the season, but freshman Zack Moss might be back this week from an undisclosed injury and freshman Devonta'e Henry-Cole has been taken out of a planned redshirt season. More injury news for the Utes: Safety Marcus Williams and linebacker Sunia Tauteoli left last week's game with undisclosed injuries and were not on Monday's depth chart. Whittingham, always tight-lipped about injuries, only said that the injuries we're not season-ending. The Utes rely more on efficiency than explosiveness on offense. They rank No. 79 nationally in scoring (26.7 points per game) and No. 61 in total offense (417.9 yards per game). Quarterback Troy Williams is completing just 56.6 percent of his passes, but he has not thrown an interception in the last four games, a span of 119 passes. Leading wide receiver Tim Patrick, who has caught five of Williams' seven touchdown passes, missed the Arizona game two weeks ago and played sparingly last week because of an unspecified injury. UCLA's strength is its defense. The Bruins have not allowed an opponent to reach 400 yards in six consecutive games, the first time that has happened since 2010. Only one opponent all season has completed better than 53 percent of its passes against UCLA; that was Washington State at 58 percent." They have a lot of speed, a lot of athleticism," Whittingham said of UCLA. "Our guys can't be fooled by the record because they're a good football team and have a lot of good players." With no clear-cut leader in the South, it's not out of the question that the Bruins could get themselves into a tie for first by the end of the season. They play the division leaders -- Utah and Colorado -- in consecutive games." Things are tough for us right now," said linebacker Jayon Brown. "We have to see what we're made of."
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