UCLA takeaway kings among 5 things to watch as Bruins rise to prominence invades Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota coach P.J.Fleck tells his team to row the boat, everyone pulling in unison.UCLA’s Bob Chesney instructs his players to burn the damn things, their resolve being the only thing they need.Whose team will stay afloat Saturday in the battle of the metaphors?The stakes seemingly couldn’t be bigger for the eighth-ranked Bruins, one of three undefeated teams left in major college football.If UCLA (8-0 overall, 5-0 Big Ten) can beat the Golden Gophers (5-3, 3-2), they’ll take one of the biggest remaining steps needed to reach the College Football Playoff.It won’t be easy at a place where Minnesota has won 11 of its last 12 games, going undefeated in Big Ten play since 2024.“This is as tough a team as we’ve faced and probably will face,” Chesney said.

“Playing at their place, early start – all the things that come with it – there’s going to be uncomfortable moments that occur throughout the course of this game.”The boat will go from a symbol to the literal focus of Huntington Bank Stadium before the game and between the third and fourth quarters, when an alumnus – and then a member of the band – bangs a drum and the fans mimic the motion of rowing a boat.If the scene looks familiar, it’s something Norway popularized during the recent World Cup.Here are five things to watch in a game that kicks off at 9 a.m.PST on FOX:Maybe the mistake UCLA kept making over all those dreadful years of football was not hiring a sitting head coach.The last two they’ve hired – Chesney and Pepper Rodgers, who came from Kansas in 1971 – went on to engineer the biggest single-season turnarounds in program history.Rodgers’ 1972 team went 8-3, a six-win improvement over a team that went 2-7-1 the previous year.

Of course, that meant that Rodgers’ improvement was over his own disappointing debut season.Chesney is cleaning up the mess left behind by predecessor DeShaun Foster.If the Bruins beat the Golden Gophers, they will improve to...