UCLA Preview
Between a weak non-conference schedule and only two road games played to date, some may claim that UCLA’s 7-1 mark let alone No. 10 ranking is somewhat of a mirage, but is it one that will be proven true or false in the desert? Let’s examine a Bruin squad that is plenty dominant on offense and sports a defense that adequately supports the impressive performance on the other side of the ball.
UCLA Offense
A talented if inconsistent quarterback his first three seasons at UCLA and an all-conference honoree last season, tenured signal caller Dorian Thompson-Robinson is making the most of his final collegiate season and has become one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the nation for 2022.
On the year, Thompson-Robinson averages 246.4 passing yards per game with 17 touchdowns and only three interceptions while also rushing for 39.9 yards per game with five scores while averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
Thompson-Robinson ties for the Pac-12 lead and is tied for fifth nationally by completing 72.3% of his passes – tied for third-best nationally among players with at least 220 pass attempts on the year.
Ultimately, DTR is one of only six FBS quarterbacks at this current point who is averaging at least 240 passing yards per game while also completing at least 70% of his passing attempts. He enters this game with more than 9,500 career passing yards and exactly 1,500 career rushing yards with 99 combined touchdowns.
DTR, the Second-Team All-Pac-12 quarterback in 2021, has five games with at least 260 passing yards on the year, including a season-high 315 yards against Washington. He also has four games with at least 50 net rushing yards, including a season-high 87 in the opener against Bowling Green.
The Pac-12’s leading rusher, who also ranks eighth nationally in total rushing yards, it is highly likely that star running back Zach Charbonnet will surpass the 1,000-yard rushing mark fairly early in Saturday’s game.
The national leader in rushing yards per carry (7.53), Charbonnet, a Maxwell Award semifinalist, enters this weekend with 964 yards, and he is one of only 20 players in the country with at least ten rushing touchdowns. His ten rushing scores place him in a three-way tie – a group that includes ASU’s Xazavian Valladay – for second in the conference behind Oregon QB Bo Nix’s 11.
Since he missed a game earlier this season, Charbonnet’s numbers are additionally impressive, as he ranks third in the nation in rushing yards per game with 137.7. He has rushed or at least 100 yards in six of seven games this year and twice rushed for a season-high 198 yards – including this past weekend against Stanford.
On three occasions this season, he has averaged 9.0 or more yards per carry, has at least one touchdown in six of seven games played, and twice has rushed for three scores in a game this year. Charbonnet has also carried the ball at least 20 times in five games this season, including the past four outings.
A threat as a receiver as well, he has five games with at least three receptions and three games with at least 50 receiving yards, including a season-high 61 yards on five catches last week. In all, he has 20 receptions for 232 yards this season.
Ultimately, Charbonnet is coming into Tempe hot as he posted a career-high of 259 combined rushing and receiving yards with three touchdowns last week versus Stanford.
A Second-Team All-Pac-12 selection in 2021, Charbonnet should easily be a first-team honoree this season.
At receiver, Duke grad transfer Jake Bobo has made a tremendous impact in his one year with the Bruins as he leads the squad with 526 yards and six touchdowns on 35 receptions. Bobo caught 126 passes at Duke from 2018-21 before transferring to UCLA and has caught at least three passes in every game this year, with three of eight games resulting in at least five receptions. He has surpassed the 100-yard mark twice; first, he had six catches for 142 yards with two touchdowns against Washington and then eight receptions for 101 yards and a score against Oregon.
Kazmeir Allen leads UCLA with 39 catches but only has 268 yards (6.9 avg.) with one touchdown while also posting four rushes for 74 yards and a score.
Behind Bobo and Allen, UCLA has three additional receivers to have caught at least ten passes in Logan Loya (11-189-2), Titus Mokiao-Atimalala (11-162), and Kam Brown (12-125-3).
At tight end, Michael Ezeike (14-168) and Hudson Habermehl (10-91-1) typically combine for a few receptions per game as well.
The Bruin offensive line figures to start left tackle Raiqwon O’Neal, left guard Atonio Mafi, center Duke Clemens, right guard Jon Gaines II and right tackle Garrett DiGiorgio. This group of five has started all eight games together thus far in 2022.
UCLA Offense Summary
As a team, UCLA ranks 11th nationally in scoring offense (39.6) and 13th in the country in rush offense (222.1).
Though players such as USC QB Caleb Williams have been getting the fanfare as postseason awards candidates in the Pac-12, both Thompson-Robinson and Charbonnet certainly should be highly legitimate candidates for the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year award.
With the top QB-RB duo in the conference and one of the absolute best in the nation, the Bruins pose a major threat on the ground against an ASU team that had a vastly disappointing day defending the run against a brutal Colorado team last week.
UCLA Defense
Defensively, linemen Jacob Sykes and Jay Toia are poised to be joined in the starting lineup by Gabriel Murphy and Bo Calvert, with JonJon Vaughns, Darius Muasau, and Kain Medrano at linebacker.
Sykes has 15 tackles and three quarterback hurries, while Toia has eight tackles on the year.
Muasau ranks second on the team with 52 tackles and shares the team-high of two interceptions, adding a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Vaughns ranks third on the team with 40 tackles and also has two interceptions, while Calvert has 17 tackles, including 2.0 sacks. Murphy has 20 tackles, including 2.0 for loss, while Medrano has eight tackles.
Linebacker Laiatu Latu has not started a game this season and is not listed on this week’s two-deep, but he leads the Pac-12 and is tied for second nationally with 7.5 sacks and also leads the league and is tied for fifth nationally with three forced fumbles.
In the secondary, cornerbacks John Humphrey and Devin Kirkwood figure to be partnered with safeties Stephan Blaylock and Mo Osling III.
Osling leads the team with 54 tackles, while Blaylock ranks four on the team with 31 tackles, including 2.0 sacks with an interception. Humphrey and Kirkwood each have 27 tackles on the year.
Though not listed in the starting lineup, defensive back Kenny Churchwell III, a Phoenix native, is tied for fourth on the team with 31 tackles.
UCLA Defense Summary
Defensively, UCLA is an above average unit in the Pac-12, ranking third in the league in total defense (360.5), which ranks 49th nationally.
The Bruins also rank fifth in the Pac-12 in scoring defense (24.3) while also ranking fifth in the conference in pass defense (235.4) and fifth in rush defense (125.1).
Ultimately, the Bruin defense has been a “good but not great” unit that has done more than enough to allow UCLA’s highly potent offense to maintain leads and win games.
UCLA Special Teams
Nicholas Barr-Mira handles both placekicking and punting duties for UCLA and has connected on 12-of-16 field goals with a long of 49 and averages 44.0 yards on 13 punts on the year.
Kazmeir Allen is the top kickoff returner, with Logan Loya listed as the number one punt returner.
Allen averages 26.5 yards on 12 kickoff returns to rank 13th in the nation, while Loya averages 5.1 yards on eight punt returns.
Overall Summary
With four games remaining in the regular season, UCLA still controls its own destiny in its pursuit of a Pac-12 Conference championship game appearance but even just one more loss in league play could put a major damper on those aspirations.
Clocking in at No. 10 in this week’s Associated Press poll, the Bruins represent the first top-10 team to come to ASU since Oregon in 2019. Dating back to the start of the 2014 season, ASU has won its past three matchups at home versus top-10 teams (No. 6 Oregon in 2019, No. 5 Washington in 2017, and No. 10 Notre Dame in 2014). Overall, the Sun Devils are 4-4 against top-10 teams since the start of the 2014 season, including a loss at No. 6 USC earlier this year, and have not lost in Sun Devil Stadium to a top-10 team since the 2013 Pac-12 Championship Game against No. 7 Stanford.
UCLA also checked in at No. 12 in the first College Football Playoff poll of the 2022 season.
The series between the two programs has been about as back-and-forth as it gets, as ASU and UCLA have split the past four, past eight, past 10, past 12, past 14, past 16, and past 18 matchups – i.e., dating back to 2004, these two programs are 9-9 against one another.
In that span, there have been monumental victories and crushing defeats for Arizona State, such as the Pac-12 south division clinching victory in Pasadena in 2013, as well as a walk-off Bruin win in Tempe the previous year and an absolutely gut-wrenching defeat for the Devils at UCLA in 2011.
UCLA’s surge this season is quite incredible, not just because the Bruins have risen from a sub-.500 team just a few years ago into the nation’s top-10, but they’ve done so after losing the services of eight of the ten players who last year earned first-team, second-team, or honorable mention All-Pac-12 accolades.
Ultimately, UCLA is still in the thick of things for the conference championship and perhaps even an outside shot at a College Football Playoff appearance if it can plow through the season with no further losses. For ASU, this game represents the opportunity to continue momentum built against Colorado, play spoiler for UCLA’s lofty aspirations and give the Sun Devils an incredible win and another step toward bowl eligibility – a goal that would require a perfect 3-0 finish after this weekend without an upset victory over the Bruins.
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