Standing atop the Big Ten Conference, No. 7 UCLA takes a break from league competition on Saturday when it welcomes Nevada to Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif.
The Bruins (7-0) closed out Week 8 as the only team in the Big Ten with five conference wins following a 28-10 rout of Michigan State. UCLA also is one of only three undefeated teams remaining in the Football Bowl Subdivision after BYU, Texas Tech and James Madison all lost in upsets last week.
With another win, the Bruins will match the program’s best start since the 2005 season. Their two most recent decisions in this stretch came with Ty Dieffenbach starting at quarterback in place of Nico Iamaleava.
Dieffenbach took over midway through UCLA’s Oct. 10 win at Oregon when Iamaleava sustained a serious leg injury. A Bruins rushing attack that had been in the nation’s top three ahead of visiting Oregon managed just 140 yards on the ground against the Ducks and 120 in a 17-7 win over Wisconsin on Oct. 17.
Against Michigan State, however, the UCLA run game came roaring back with 245 yards and three touchdowns spread between Anthony Woods, Wayne Knight and Jaivian Thomas.
Knight has scored a rushing touchdown in all seven games this season, and his 12 for the season are tied for fourth-most nationally. Woods’ 112 yards against Michigan State marked his first time eclipsing the century mark since UCLA’s Week 1 win at Cal.
“This is a loaded room. Everybody gets their opportunity,” Thomas said about the Bruins running back rotation. “We push each other every day. … The environment we’ve got in that running-back room, we never settle.”
UCLA’s depth at the position promises to test a Nevada defense that, at 166.4 yards allowed per game, ranks No. 99 in the nation against the rush.
However, the Wolf Pack (3-4) head to the Rose Bowl for just the program’s second-ever matchup against a UCLA side off their best defensive effort of the season. Nevada held Mountain West Conference counterpart San Jose State to just 65 yards on 30 carries and nine total first downs in a 28-13 win last Saturday.
Edge rusher Dylan LaBarbera contributed to the effort with two tackles for loss, his second game with a pair of takedowns in the opposing backfield this season.
Despite their success against San Jose State, the Wolf Pack continued to fall on the wrong side of the turnover battle. Nevada is minus-9 on takeaways for the season, worse than every team in the FBS except for Charlotte.
UCLA, meanwhile, ranks fourth nationally in turnover margin at plus-11.
“They have an attacking style. They do more what I would call traditional fire zone,” Nevada coach Jeff Choate said in his press conference on Monday. “This is kind of a throwback in terms of what they’re doing. (It) is not something that you see every week, at least to the level that they do it.”
“The strength of their defense is their front seven,” Choate added.
Linebacker Sammy Omosigho has emerged as a leading force for that front seven with his team-leading 10 tackles for loss. He leads UCLA’s efforts to apply pressure, and the Bruins secondary is capitalizing with 12 interceptions, third most in FBS.