UCLA facing its biggest game of 21st century; what will win the day for Bruins
EUGENE, Ore.– Bob Chesney likes to say that UCLA is one good football team away from being the most dominant athletic department in the country.Maybe the Bruins are already there.Having risen to No.
21 in the national rankings during Chesney’s first season on the job, UCLA has a chance to log one of its most meaningful wins of this century on Saturday.A victory over No.13 Oregon at Autzen Stadium would make Chesney the first coach in program history to start 5-0 while also putting the Bruins (4-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) firmly in the running for the College Football Playoff.How big of a deal is that?Remember, this is a program that hasn’t played in a major bowl game since going to the Rose Bowl on Jan.
1, 1999.What’s happened since has been a forgettable collage of Holiday Bowls, losing seasons and tarps covering the end zones at their home stadium because of small crowds.So, yeah, beating the Ducks (3-1, 1-0) on national television would be huge.“It means,” Chesney said when asked about the possibility, “it’s a next step in what we can do.”Here are five things to watch in a game scheduled to kick off at 12:38 p.m.PDT on CBS:Oregon erased any doubt about which quarterback UCLA would face midweek by listing Dante Moore as out.It wasn’t a surprise given the jarring hit he absorbed from USC’s Desman Stephens II late last month at the Coliseum, which sent Moore to the hospital.
Fortunately, he sustained only a concussion.Backup Dylan Raiola proceeded to lead the Ducks past the Trojans, looking every bit as good as Moore – if not a bit better – in the process.Having started at Nebraska before he transferred to Oregon, Raiola could make a strong case to be considered the nation’s best backup quarterback.The last time UCLA faced Raiola, the Bruins knocked him out of the game with a crushing hit on the then-freshman late in a victory over Nebraska in the 2024 season.
Raiola has improved considerably since then, undoubtedly providing UCLA defens...