UCLA Bruins Ready for Homecoming Game Against Stanford in Rose Bowl Saturday

UCLA returns to Pasadena this week for a Saturday evening Homecoming matchup against Stanford. The Bruins, now ranked No. 12 by the AP and No. 15 by the coaches, will take on the Cardinal as the Rose Bowl is celebrating its 100th year this week.

Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Fresh off the loss against Oregon (45-30) last week, the UCLA Bruins are hoping to return to their winning streak when they go against the Stanford Cardinal in a homecoming matchup this Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Both teams are led by talented coaches – Chip Kelley with the Bruins, and David Shaw with the Cardinal – who have built some of the strongest teams in the history of Football. Each of them is hungry for a win.

The Bruins will be attempting to defeat the Cardinal in Pasadena for the first time since 2008, in a game where quarterback Kevin Craft connected on a seven-yard pass to tight end Cory Harkey with 10 seconds remaining to secure a 23-20 victory. UCLA has lost the last six matchups of the series to the Cardinal in Pasadena, after winning the six previous home meetings between 1998 and 2008. Last year, at Stanford Stadium, the Bruins won against the Cardinal, 35-24, with Dorian Thompson-Robinson accounting for four touchdowns.

Stanford enters Saturday’s game on a two-game winning streak: they won at Notre Dame, 16-14, two weeks ago before defeating Arizona State Saturday, 15-14, marking Stanford’s first win without a touchdown since Oct. 24, 1970, in a 9-7 victory over UCLA. The Cardinal kicked five field goals in this win.

The Bruins are leaning on quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who’s second among Power Five quarterbacks in completion percentage (73.8 percent) and has thrown multiple TD passes in five straight games, the longest such streak of his career. His favorite target has been wide receiver Jake Bobo, who has caught a score in three consecutive games. Running back Zach Charbonnet leads the Pac-12 with 766 yards and has four straight 100-yard games.

The Cardinal is suffering some injuries after running back Casey Filkins was injured in the arm last week. Filkins was leading the conference in total touches with 139, but will be out for the whole season. The Cardinal also lost E.J. Smith earlier in the season. Michael Wilson, who leads the team with 418 receiving yards, is also likely out for the year after an injury against Notre Dame. The injuries are putting even more pressure on quarterback Tanner McKee, who set a career high with 57 attempts last week and threw for 320 yards, the second-most in his career.

UCLA should keep this simple: it will run, and then run some more, College Football News said. UCLA has only been under 160 rushing once – the too-close call against South Alabama – and now it’s going to get the good offensive line going and take control of the game from the start, if they want to win. UCLA won’t have a problem throwing, either.

Saturday’s game will be broadcast by ESPN at 7:30 p.m. The Bruin IMG Radio Network will broadcast the contest, which will also be aired over SiriusXM and the Varsity App