Will High-Scoring Bruins Ride Home Game Winning Streak Against Arizona Wilcats in Rose Bowl Saturday?

The UCLA Bruins face the Wildcats of the University of Arizona Saturday night in the Rose Bowl for Week 11 of Pac-12 college football.

The Bruins, ranked No. 9 by the Associated Press and No. 10 by coaches, will take on the Wildcats at 7:30 p.m.

UCLA has won eight home games in a row, its longest streak since winning 10 straight home contests over the 2005 and 2006 seasons. It has also captured wins against its last five Pac-12 opponents in games played in the Rose Bowl.

Last week the Bruins beat the Arizona State Sun Devils 50-36  for its seventh win in nine Pac-12 road games. The Bruins ran for 402 yards, the most since 2010.

In their last home contest, UCLA dominated Stanford in a 38-13 decision, with Zach Charbonnet accounting for 259 all-purpose yards, including a career-high tying 198 yards on the ground against the Cardinal.

UCLA last played the Wildcats last year in Tucson, Arizona, winning 36-16 after Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown each produced 100-yard rushing games. Dorian Thompson-Robinson added 82 passing yards and rushed for a couple of scores.

On No. 29, 2020, the two teams met last at the Rose Bowl, when Demetric Felton Jr. generated a career-best 206 rushing yards on 32 carries as the Bruins defeated Arizona 27-10.

The Wildcats are entering the final quarter of the 2022 season needing to win its last three games to be bowl eligible.

“I don’t know if this is normal or not, to play four teams in the top 10 in the last five weeks, not sure if anyone else in the country has done that,” Wilcats coach Jedd Fisch said Monday.

Fisch gave UCLA coach Chip Kelly much credit for having built the Bruins into what they are now since Kelly arrived at UCLA in 2018, supported by an able coaching team, some of whom he’s coached with. Offensive line coach Tim Drevno was with him at Michigan, inside linebackers coach Ken Norton was with him at Seattle, and he’s also known defensive coordinator Bill McGovern for a long time, he said.

“DeShaun Foster (UCLA running backs coach), same thing. And then I have a ton of respect for Coach Kelly. So we got to work it out for us, and we’re looking forward to the challenge,” Fisch said.

Predicting the outcome Saturday, Picks and Parlays writes: “The Bruins should win this game comfortably at home against the struggling Wildcats. The Wildcats are 5-4 against the spread this season. The Bruins are 6-3 against the number on the year. We think the Bruins high powered offense handles business making our best bet UCLA -19.5.”

Ahead of Wednesday morning’s practice session at the Wasserman Football Center, Chip Kelly said he’s looking out for the Wildcats’ passing attack, which he said “gets the most of your attention.”

“The strength of their football team is their offensive football team and they’ve scored a lot of points,” he said. “They’ve done a really nice job, Jedd’s (UA coach Jedd Fisch) done a really good job with them on the offensive side of the ball, so we’ve gotta be prepared going against this group.”