{"id":7605,"date":"2019-11-16T04:33:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-16T04:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=7605"},"modified":"2019-11-16T04:33:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-16T04:33:36","slug":"college-football-ucla-bruins-at-utah-utes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/ncaaf\/college-football-ucla-bruins-at-utah-utes\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football: UCLA Bruins at Utah Utes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kyle Whittingham has been ready for this moment. The Utah Utes are on the cusp of their best season since joining the Pac 12, and they have a decent chance of qualifying for the College Football Playoff. Utah is currently 50-1 to win the national championship<\/a>, but the Utes should be one of the four teams chosen by the Selection Committee at the end of the regular season provided they win out and beat Oregon in the Pac 12 Championship Game. They must avoid potential pitfalls though as a loss could lead to them missing out on the conference title game due to their loss to USC earlier this season. That means they can\u2019t let the UCLA Bruins surprise them in Salt Lake City. UCLA has already pulled off one of the biggest upsets this season, and Chip Kelly would love to make it happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UCLA BRUINS AT UTAH UTES
CFB LINE: UTAH -21
CFB TOTAL: 51.5<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

All four of UCLA\u2019s wins have come in Pac 12 play, and they have appeared to show some improvement in Year Two under Kelly. However, the Bruins are a prohibitive underdog<\/a> in this game as their defense has been very suspect this season. UCLA has won three straight games ahead of Saturday night\u2019s clash, and the Bruins have had two weeks to prepare for Utah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECENT HISTORY<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Utah has won three straight games against UCLA, and the Utes have demolished the Bruins in the last two meetings. Whittingham led the Utes to a 48-17 beatdown in 2017, and Utah crushed UCLA 41-10 in the Rose Bowl last season. That bodes well for the Utes\u2019 chances on Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHEN UCLA HAS THE BALL<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Bruins are finally figuring things out with Kelly, and they have scored 31 points or more in four straight games after being held to 17 points or fewer in four of their first five games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be an uphill battle for UCLA to return to a bowl, but there have been encouraging things to behold. Dorian Thompson-Robinson has matured as a passer, completing 60.5 percent of his passes with a 7.6 YPA this year. Interceptions are a little bit of an issue, but some of those have been due to an offensive line that has allowed him to be sacked 20 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running back Demetric Felton has been one of the Bruins\u2019 most utilized weapons. Felton leads the team in receptions and receiving yards due to his prowess as a pass catcher, and he is second on UCLA in rushing yards. Joshua Kelley is closing in on 1,000 yards as the Bruins\u2019 best running back, and he is averaging 4.9 YPC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither Kelley nor Felton will move the chains often this weekend. Utah has one of the best defensive lines in college football today, allowing a marginal 2.6 YPC. If UCLA is going to pull off the upset as three-touchdown underdogs<\/a>, DTR will need to beat the Utes\u2019 defensive backs through the air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHEN UTAH HAS THE BALL<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Utes\u2019 best playmakers are healthy, and that has fans feeling great about their chances of playing meaningful football in December. Tyler Huntley is one of the best quarterbacks in the conference, using his mobility to help set up the passing game. Huntley is averaging 10.8 YPA while completing 73.8 percent of his passes with 11 touchdowns and a lone interception in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zack Moss should surpass 1,000 yards for the season next week against Arizona, and the senior is ending his collegiate career in style. This will be the third straight year that Moss has run for over 1,000 yards, and he has been very productive. Moss is averaging 6.0 YPC on the year with 435 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in Utah\u2019s last four games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UCLA has not fared well on defense, and the Bruins have been lit up in the air. The Bruins are surrendering a whopping 8.5 YPA, so Huntley is a great bet to go over his NCAA Player Props<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PREDICTION<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Utah is going to leave no doubt that the Utes are a better program than UCLA, and I expect this team to surpass 40 points on Saturday night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get the latest college football odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BetOnline.ag on Instagram<\/a>–Follow for the latest odds, stats and information!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyle Whittingham has been ready for this moment. The Utah Utes are on the cusp of their best season since…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":7606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7608,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605\/revisions\/7608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}