UCLA has a history of getting paired against Mountain West teams in bowl games.
Since 2002, the Bruins have met a MW school four times in the postseason, and Saturday’s meeting in the LA Bowl against Boise State will mark the sixth all-time meeting. The Broncos earned the bid as the MW champs, while the Bruins earned the spot as the Pac-12’s No. 5 team — outside of Oregon and Washington who will be playing on New Year’s Day.
College football betting odds currently have the Bruins as four-point favorites.
This will only be the second meeting between the Bruins and the Broncos, with the first coming in a 38-7 UCLA victory in 1999.
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This year’s teams are fairly similar to the squads that met that year. But now, both teams have seen some big-time changes in just the past week.
With Boise’s starting QB Taylen Green committing to Arkansas and a season-ending injury to Maddux Madsen, the Broncos are left with few options at QB. True freshman CJ Tiller and sophomore walk-on Colt Fulton are next in line to earn snaps.
As of right now, it’s anybody’s guess who gets the starting job.
Luckily for the Broncos, though, they have one of the best running backs in not only the Group of Five, but in the country, in Ashton Jeanty. The sophomore was voted the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year after leading the league with 1,262 rushing yards and did so while missing two games.
Boise will need to lean on its rushing attack if they want to have a chance here with a very inexperienced signal caller against a solid Bruins defense. This is actually a matchup that might be flying under the radar among bowl games — Boise’s rushing attack against UCLA’s rushing defense.
The Bruins rank first in all of the FBS, allowing just 69.6 rushing yards per game. It hasn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher all season, and the closest was Damien Martinez’s 90 yards for Oregon State.
It’s safe to say this is probably the biggest test for Jeanty and the Boise offensive line this season.
While UCLA won’t have to worry about Green and the damage he can do with his legs, they will be tasked with handling George Holani out of the backfield as well. Holani has served as a great complement to Jeanty while healthy, and made sure the running game didn’t skip a beat in the two games Jeanty missed.
In those two games, Holani rushed for 277 yards and four TDs. He’s had a long, productive career and is a Boise fan favorite. The LA Bowl will be Holani’s final game of his college career, so I imagine he’ll want to go out with a bang.
One thing’s for sure, the Broncos will need him.
Both of these backs are hard to bring down, and UCLA’s defense — and especially its front seven — don’t miss tackles. They allow just 2.33 yards per carry, which ranks second in the country. Once they get their hands on a ball carrier, he’s likely to go down.
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UCLA’s defensive emergence this season was mainly because of the addition of defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn and the different schemes he instilled. Lynn has since departed to take the same position at USC, however, and won’t be on the sidelines for this one.
Not only that, but star defensive lineman and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Laiatu Latu announced he’ll be sitting out of the LA Bowl to focus on finals and prepare for the NFL Draft. He created chaos in backfields all season.
How much will this impact UCLA’s defense?
The Bruins only lost one main contributor to the transfer portal with Kamari Ramsey testing the waters. The safety had 40 tackles on the year with four pass breakups and one interception. Players hitting the portal shouldn’t be an issue, but the departure of Lynn and missing Latu can’t be understated.
We’ll find out soon how much they’ll be missed, and if the Boise State rushing attack can take advantage and do what it’s done all season.
