For the first time since 2005, both the UCLA Bruins and the Southern California Trojans are 6-0 and both teams look loaded enough to not only win the Pac-12 Championship but potentially crash the College Football Playoff. Should that happen, it would the first time a Pac-12 program has made the CFP since Washington in 2016.
Out of the two, the more surprising one is Chip Kelly‘s UCLA Bruins, who is ranked No. 11 in this week’s AP poll, their highest since the 2015 season when they reached No. 7 in Week 4.
Over the past two weeks, the Bruins had two tough tests facing a resurgent Washington team and last week defeated preseason Pac-12 favorite Utah. They passed both with flying colors.
Following their bye week, Kelly leads his Bruins to Eugene to visit Oregon, where Kelly rose to national prominence leading the Ducks to a 46-7 record, three New Year’s Six Bowls, and the 2010 BCS National Championship.
Since returning to college football in 2018, however, Kelly is 0-3 facing his former team, although the last two contests have each been decided by a field goal.
Kelly has a trio of offensive weapons that have engineered the Bruins to a Top 10 scoring offense at 41.8 points per game. Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson has been a dynamic leader behind center completing nearly 75% of his passes, is Top 10 in the nation in touchdown passes with 15 and QBR at 88.4.
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“We’re going to put the ball in his hands with the game on the line. … That’s the confidence we have in him,” Chip Kelly said of Thompson-Robinson following the Washington game. It is that confidence and trust that has been established in Thompson-Robinson’s five seasons with Kelly that is starting to produce outstanding results.
Supporting Thompson-Robinson is running back Zach Charbonnet, who continues to blossom with UCLA after transferring from Michigan following the 2020 season. Last season, Charbonnet eclipsed the 1,000 rushing yard mark and looks well on his way to doing so again in 2022, with 617 yards on the ground through six games, averaging over seven yards per carry.
Kelly has high praise for Charbonnet and his character saying,
“He’s just a warrior. You know, a lot of guys carry 21 times, and they’re kind of tired but he will want to know why he couldn’t get more. He’s that type of a kid with a tremendous work ethic. We kind of hang our hat on being able to run the football and it starts with him. We need him and Dorian when we get down a little bit. You can kind of see that those are the guys who we relied on a little bit.” – Chip Kelly on Zach Charbonnet
Flanking Thompson-Robinson and Charbonnet on the perimeter is wide receiver Jake Bobo. The Duke transfer has emerged as one of the most dynamic receivers the Bruins have had since the days of J.J. Stokes and Danny Farmer.
Chip Kelly described one of Bobo’s strengths as a receiver, “He can make the contested catches really well,” Kelly said. “He has a great understanding of how to set defensive backs up with his routes, and he’s got outspending hands and toughness. We were really excited when we could add him as one of our transfer kids.”
Just don’t fall for the gaffe that Jake Bobo is known college football offensive coordinator Mike Bobo’s son, even though his dad’s name is Mike. “I’d catch a ball,” Bobo said, “and the announcers would say, ‘Jake Bobo, son of former Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, on the catch,’ or something like that, so that’s always been funny.”
While most prognostications didn’t have the Bruins being undefeated at this point of the season, the opposite is true for Southern Cal.
Leading the charge has been offensively Caleb Williams, who has 14 touchdown passes through six games in the season. Williams did not have his best game against Washington State on Saturday barely completing 50% of his passes, without Williams being the spark plug for the Trojans, head coach Lincoln Riley commented, “Really, really tough, hard-fought win, we had to win this one, again in a different way.”
A different way included running back Travis Dye rushing for 149 yards and a touchdown. The Oregon transfer continues to be a major impact player out of the backfield.
What also stood out was defensive lineman Tuli Tuipulotu‘s monster performance against Washington State, where he finished with five tackles, including four tackles for loss and three sacks. Currently, Tuipulotu sits atop the national leaderboard in sacks with seven and second in the nation in tackles for loss with 12.
While most of the headlines are reserved for the firepower on offense, it is the work of Tuipulotu and the rest of the defense that is leading the nation in interceptions and sacks and in the Top 10 in tackles for loss.
#USC's defense leads the nation in interceptions (12) and total sacks (24). It is also tied for No. 10 in the nation with 45 tackles for a loss.
USC recorded 21 sacks in all of 2021. pic.twitter.com/Uh086BC5b1
— Chris Treviño (@ChrisNTrevino) October 10, 2022
For the Trojans, they face a fast-fading Utah team this weekend. The Utes’ preseason aspirations have not come to fruition, but they still have a chance to play spoiler against USC.
Even the disappointment didn’t let Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham take a few shots at the Trojans,
“Pay them a bunch of money, do you have money we can use to pay them? That’s kind of what it comes down to, that’s what it’s coming to. I’m not accusing anyone of illegal improprieties or anything like that because it’s above board now with NIL, but as I said before, there’s going to come a time in the very, very near future where the top-25 NIL pots of money are going to mirror exactly the top-25 teams in the country.”
“That’s just how it is. That’s where it’s heading and there’s no debate about it, unless they change the rules. I don’t think they can backpedal now with the can of worms that they’ve opened.” – – Utah coach Kyle Whittingham
Needless to say this bulletin board material will keep Riley and his team motivated.
Once they get past the Utes, the Trojans schedule eases up with a trip to Tucson followed by two home games against Cal and Colorado before the Battle of Los Angeles in the Rose Bowl between the Trojans and Bruins.
Their paths are leading toward their highest ranked matchup since 2005 and for programs who will be departing the Pac-12 to the Big Ten this is the momentum much needed for their new journey.
Somewhere in Chicago, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is smiling at his two new new acquisitions.
