After their 0-4 start, no one could have dreamed that the UCLA Bruins would have beaten Penn State and blown out Michigan State. And yet, here we are.
Head coach Tim Skipper and offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel have led one of the most rapid, dramatic turnarounds we have ever seen in college football history. Back-to-Back big wins over the Nittany Lions and Spartans have Bruins fans dreaming big about beating Indiana and Ohio State, which would have been a flat out insane thought after the Bruins were blown out by New Mexico State at home and DeShaun Foster was fired.
But are those dreams just dreams, or could the Bruins deliver even bigger upsets throughout the rest of their season? Our Trojans Wire and UCLA Wire writers weigh in.
Matt Zemek, Trojans Wire
A lot of UCLA fans want to believe this is true, but I’m not there yet. Michigan State is a very bad team. Penn State is in freefall. UCLA’s defense is not very good, even though the offense is for real. The problem UCLA will face against Indiana and Ohio State is that those teams have monster defensive lines. I don’t see UCLA surviving at the line of scrimmage. The gap is huge in the trenches, and Nico Iamaleava won’t be able to compensate for that.
Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire
No. UCLA looks like a much better team now than they were a month ago, but Ohio State and Indiana are on a different level.
Micah Huff, Trojans Wire
They will give both teams a competitive first quarter, and that’s about it. Both Michigan State and Penn State were teams that were wounded animals. Ohio State and Indiana are at a different level. I think those are the two games where UCLA’s Cinderella run officially ends.
Ethan Inman, Trojans Wire
Absolutely not. Ohio State and Indiana are the two most disciplined programs in the country right now. They will not let UCLA sneak up on them like the Bruins did Penn State and Michigan State. They will handle business and win comfortably — even if it’s a little less comfortably than we thought they might a few weeks ago.
Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire
No but it is hard to doubt Neuheisel and Skipper at this point in time. Ohio State and Indiana are two of the five best teams in the country and UCLA will be on the road in both games. UCLA has gotten great play out of Nico Iamaleava over the past two weeks and good quarterback play will give them a puncher’s chance but the talent-gap between the Bruins and Hoosiers and Buckeyes will be hard to surmount.
Ryan Lorenz, UCLA Wire
As fun as that would be, it’s not true in the slightest. Both Ohio State and Indiana are two of the best teams in the conference and in college football as a whole. UCLA started the season 0-4 and although they have gone an extraordinary two-game run, they have a lot of flaws. Fortunately, they play both the Buckeyes and Hoosiers this season, so they have a chance to prove me wrong.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: How high can UCLA football climb under Tim Skipper this season?
