The game out there that most people automatically count as a loss is the UCLA game on 9/19. I don't think they are unbeatable at all. While they are returning a lot (17 of 22 starters from last year) like Texas did last year, they are losing all of the leadership from last year. Hundley was a beast and I remember him single handedly winning a couple of games for them. The QB that is the likely replacement? Josh Rosen who was a top recruit, but is a freshman. They lost their top LB, DL, and CB from last year to the NFL as well.

Looking back at their season last year, they were a confusing team to watch. I was in Tempe when they played ASU and as a unbiased observer of that game, I thought ASU was the better team, but that game had a few big plays that blew it open. They had a 95 yard pick-six right before half time, and then a 100 yard kick return to start the second half, and a total of 5 plays over 80 yards. Besides those plays, they struggled to get yards and get sustained drives going. So they won (and deservedly so, not trying to say otherwise), but I walked away thinking that UCLA wasn't that great.

They struggled with Texas (minus Hundley of course so we know they feel) and against UVA, Cal, and Colorado (2 OTs!!) and loss to Utah and Stanford (and of course Oregon). But they beat decent teams in USC, Arizona, and Memphis.

Also, they are breaking in a new DC. Tom Bradley was a long time Penn State coach who was the interim head coach after they fired Paterno. He wasn't retained and spent some time as a CBS analyst until West Virginia hired him to coach it's D-line. Now he's the DC at UCLA. Feels like that could take a few games (at least) to gel.

All in all, I don't hate our chances in Pasadena this year. They are going to be overrated (as usual) and breaking in a freshman QB and a new DC. They'll have a lot of people returning from a solid team last year, but if UVA, Colorado, Cal, Texas, Memphis, and especially the yewts can hang with them WITH Hundley, I don't see why it's so preposterous for BYU to steal a game from them early in the year.

I'm not saying you should bet your mortgage on BYU, but looking at that team how can you say that there is no way that we win that one? What is more frustrating is listening to local radio talk about them. Whenever they are talking about BYU, UCLA is a top 10 team that is going to be a loss for the Cougars. When talking about the Utes, UCLA isn't that great and should pencil in a hard earned W for that game. UCLA will be a good team, as will BYU. I call that game a coin toss and it all depends on how well Taysom plays. I think he's going to play well and I think we're going to win that game something like 28-20.