Gameday predictions: UCLA vs. USC

Jack Perez
Sports editor
Prediction: UCLA 27, USC 24

Everyone will be watching for the offenses to light up the scoreboard like last season. But the defenses will reign supreme this time.

Neither team has given up more than 18 points in their last two games. UCLA allowed a combined 28 points in the contests against the two Arizona schools, while USC was only slightly worse, giving up 30 points total against Utah and Washington State.

The key matchup will come in the form of the Bruin defensive backs versus the Trojan wide receivers. Whether it’s Drake London, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyler Vaughns or a surprise breakout performer, USC boasts a host of weapons in its Air Raid attack.

UCLA’s passing defense is no slouch though. After ranking second to last in 2019, the Bruins are 61st in the nation in passing yards allowed per game, and they were even better than that before Jayden Daniels led a comeback for Arizona State.

The defensive backs have stepped up under new defensive backs coach Brian Norwood. It will be on them to hold the Trojans to a low enough score for the Bruin offense to pull out a win in a one-score game and bring the Victory Bell back to Westwood.

However, if quarterback Kedon Slovis is able to take USC’s offense into the endzone again and again, it will be a long night for UCLA.

Sam Connon
Football beat reporter
Prediction: UCLA 37, USC 34

Last year’s crosstown showdown was a shootout, and that was before the Trojans fully implemented the Air Raid offense.

The last time the Bruins faced a true air raid offense, they pulled off a near-impossible comeback win over a ranked opponent in Pullman.

UCLA won’t need to score 67 points to beat USC this week, but coach Chip Kelly is going to have to pull out all the stops in order to outscore the Trojans’ high-octane offense that ranks 30th in the nation with 33.2 points per game. That means junior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and redshirt senior running back Demetric Felton both have to perform to their full potential – not just one or the other.

The offense has to take care of the ball like it did against Arizona State and California, but it also has to be explosive like it was against Colorado. It’s a tight line to walk, but it’s possible.

And if it’s possible, I’m comfortable saying it will happen. Any time the Pac-12 has a chance to cannibalize itself or spark chaos, that chaos comes to fruition.

It’s Murphy’s Law: What can go wrong, will go wrong.

The Bruins have a shot to disrupt the Trojans’ undefeated season and a shot at a New Year’s Six bowl appearance, so they’ll do just that.

Taiyo Keilin
Assistant Sports editor
Prediction: UCLA 34, USC 29

They have won back-to-back games – and three out of four – and were only a Chip Kelly play-calling blunder away from four wins in a row and a 4-1 record on the season.

But the Trojans are also playing good football, having not lost a Pac-12 contest in over a calendar year.

Both teams boast some of the best defensive stats in the conference, with USC allowing only 21.8 points per game – the best in the Pac-12 and a field goal per game better than UCLA, which comes in at third. The Bruins enter the matchup leading the league in sacks with 18, 50% more than the second-place Trojans.

So, after laying out how good these defenses are, my score prediction seems too high – 1.5 points above the over/under in fact. But while these teams own some of the best defenses in the Pac-12, they also possess some of the best offenses.

It helps that UCLA has played as many games as anyone else in the conference, but that shouldn’t take anything away from the Bruins’ running game. Felton, graduate transfer running back Brittain Brown and Thompson-Robinson – who missed two contests because of COVID-19 contact tracing protocol – are all in the top-15 in rushing yards.

The rivalry matchup will also feature five of the Pac-12’s top-10 receivers – especially impressive given USC’s unscheduled off day two weeks ago.

The key to the game for the Bruins will be shutting down Slovis and his weapons. If they can do that and Thompson-Robinson can keep the ball out of the hands of the cardinal and gold and instead in the hands of Felton and Brown, a primetime upset is in the cards.

Samuel In
Daily Bruin senior staff
Prediction: UCLA 58, USC 0

Last year, for this prediction, I wrote about how I wanted to go to USC out of high school. So I think it’s fitting, or maybe even ironic, that as I graduate from UCLA next week, my last article for this paper is a rivalry prediction.

But the thing is, though I’ve known for a couple of weeks that I would get the opportunity to write this prediction, I’ve had a hard time figuring out what I should write.

I thought maybe I’d predict a 45-44 UCLA win in honor of the first college football game I ever attended at the Rose Bowl –⁠ a miraculous 34-point comeback by the Bruins over Texas A&M in 2017. But that’s not related to USC at all.

So then I thought maybe I’d predict a 9-6 Bruin win, reflecting the score of the Daily Bruin’s win over the Daily Trojan in last year’s Blood Bowl. But no one outside of this paper would care about that. And besides, Chip doesn’t kick field goals.

I’ve realized that no game day prediction could adequately describe my time here at UCLA. No set of scores could ever encapsulate over three years of memories.

The best I can do is 58-0.

58 –⁠ the number of bylines I have for the Daily Bruin.

0 –⁠ the number of bylines I have for the Daily Trojan.

58-0. A story of how an 18-year-old boy who wanted to go to USC, somehow fell in love with a school on the other side of town he wasn’t even thinking about applying to.

And with that, I’m out.