Thousands of Virginia fans were yelling and screaming as junior Matt Mengel trotted out onto the field for his first Division I punt.
On UCLA’s sideline, after the Bruins’ went three-and-out on their second possession of the season opener against Virginia, the coaches called for Mengel.

For almost two and a half years at UCLA – a span of 33 games before Saturday – coach Jim Mora never once handed out a ‘game ball.’
Again and again, situations that might have warranted one arose, yet the act never came to fruition.

At some point during the fall of every other year, a trip up the I-5 to Berkeley brings a football clash of two of the state’s most prestigious public schools – UCLA and Cal.

If UCLA football’s last two games are any indication of how its season will play out, then – for UCLA fans at least – a new hope is on the horizon.

UCLA football has thrust itself into a tight situation, prickling at the Bruins from all sides.
Off back-to-back losses, the pressure is on the Bruins to win the rest of their games, to salvage some of the fallen rubble of preseason expectations, to capture at the very least a Pac-12 South title.

It’s official: UCLA football, once ranked No. 7 to start the season, is now unranked in AP Poll.
The drop comes after the Bruins lost to the then-No.12 Oregon Ducks 42-30 at home.

PASADENA — Midway through the third quarter of UCLA’s 42-30 loss to Oregon, the Bruins’ offensive personnel looked listless, a lethargy befitting their demeanor.
They weren’t on the sidelines.

In a wistful moment, Jim Mora bowed his head ever so slightly, a disheartened look spreading across his face.
Clearly, UCLA’s 42-14 loss to then-No. 2 Oregon last October was nowhere near what the coach came to Eugene for as he spoke to the media afterwards.

Prior to each UCLA football game, the Daily Bruin football beat writers will predict the score and give a short reasoning behind their prediction.

To keep track of how far off each writer’s predictions are from reality, the “prediction differential” statistic shows the average difference between the writer’s predicted margin of victory and the actual margin of victory in each game.

It started with a troubling phone conversation.
On June 6, UCLA’s sophomore starting right guard Scott Quessenberry picked up his father’s call.
Scott’s eldest brother, David Lee Quessenberry, at 24 years old and in his second year as a Houston Texans offensive lineman, had been diagnosed with T-lymphoblastic lymphoma, a rare and severe form of cancer.