Week 9 of the college football season brings us a battle of two California teams playing for different things. In this post, we’ll continue with our college football game guides, as we making our Stanford-UCLA prediction.
The No. 12 ranked UCLA Bruins 6-1 (3-1) are looking to bounce back after a tough loss to Oregon in Eugenie last week. They dropped two spots in rankings and need to win out before their matchup with USC on November 19 if they want to play for a conference championship. The Stanford Cardinal 3-4 (1-3) is coming off back-t0-back wins by a combined three points. Stanford can still make a run for a bowl game but it’s a tough road ahead.
UCLA leads the all-time matchup 46-43-3 but Stanford has won 12 of the last 14 games. The total for this game is 66.5 while the Bruins are favored by 16.5 points.
Stanford-UCLA Predictions and Picks
Tanner McKee is Key
The Cardinal are led by junior quarterback Tanner McKee, who somehow managed to beat Arizona State after throwing 57 passes without a touchdown. He has eight touchdowns and five interceptions in Pac-12 play and recorded his first 300-yard game last week. McKee has been sacked 21 times. UCLA is allowing 251.1 passing yards per game and has allowed 13 passing touchdowns, 8th in the Pac-12. Stanford has four receivers with 22 or more receptions lead by Elijah Higgins with 30. Michael Wilson leads the team in both yards (418) and touchdowns (four).
The running game has been hammered by injuries. Starter EJ Smith was injured in Week 2 vs USC and was done for the season. Casey Filkins became the bell-cow and although it didn’t amount to much (92 yards) he had 32 carries in Stanford’s 16-14 win at Notre Dame.
Unfortunately, Filkins left last week’s game against Arizona State due to an injury and is now also likely done for the season. Caleb Robinson and Brendon Barrow are what’s left of the Cardinal backfield and they only have 24 carries between them. With the inexperience there, Stanford should rely on their passing game against a Bruins team that allowed five passing touchdowns to Oregon just a week ago. McKee is not Bo Nix (Oregon), but he will be the key if Stanford has any hope in this one.
UCLA Offense
The Bruins are led by Senior quarterback Heisman hopeful, Dorian Thompson-Robinson. He is a dual-threat quarterback with 21 total touchdowns and over 2,000 all-purpose yards. His 73.8% completion rating his second best in the college football.
The Bruins are well balanced, averaging 289.6 passing yards and 207.9 rushing yards a game. This offense ranks 12th in the nation with 497.4 total yards a game. Kazmier Allen and Jake Bobo are a solid wide-out duo with 68 receptions collectively.
Senior All-Conference running back Zach Charbonnet leads the run game with 766 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. His 7.1 yards a carry ranks sixth in the country. Charbonnet has five 100-yard games including a 151 yarder last week vs Oregon.
Stanford ranks 10th in run defense in the Pac-12 allowing 187.6 rushing yards per game. They gave up 192 rushing yards to Oregon State and 169 to Washington, both pass heavy teams.
Stanford-UCLA Prediction
Stanford has managed to grind out two wins in a row in low scoring contests. However, the UCLA offense is strong and should put up more than the 28 points Notre Dame and ASU scored combined. Stanford’s injuries will play a factor in this one forcing McKee to throw more than he’d like as we saw with the 57 attempts last week. Charbonnet has a huge game and the Bruins get back on track with a big win. Take UCLA to cover. They win by three scores at home.
Final Stanford-UCLA Prediction: UCLA -16.5 (107, PointsBet)
