ESPN College football Week 6: Key storylines, games to watch

UCLA got rid of its “ain’t played nobody” problem in one fell swoop last Friday night. Unbeaten in part because of a cakey nonconference schedule, Chip Kelly’s Bruins danced and sped their way past Washington 40-32, gaining 499 yards and scoring six times in a seven-possession stretch that turned a 1-point deficit into a 24-point lead.

The win transformed perceptions of the Bruins. Now they must do it again, and against an even better team.

Since losing to Florida, Utah has beaten four increasingly decent opponents by an average of 46-11. The Utes are in the nation’s top 15 in both points scored and points allowed per drive. They’ve easily covered for four straight games, and against an Oregon State team that nearly upset USC the week before, the Utes scored the game’s final 21 points to cruise 42-16.

As with TCU-Kansas, this game will be an efficiency battle. UCLA’s offense ranks sixth in overall success rate, and Utah’s is 11th; Utah’s defense ranks 17th, though UCLA’s D is more bend-don’t-break. Both teams dominate the field position game, both do well in the red zone, and both have benefited from a healthy turnover margin. Whoever carves out better advantages in the down-and-distance category probably wins.

This is also a battle between two of college football’s most delightful quarterbacks, Utah’s Cam Rising and UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson. They are currently sixth and seventh, respectively, in Total QBR.

UCLA plays mostly zone defense, and Rising destroys zone, averaging 9.5 yards per dropback with a 73% completion rate. He struggles a bit against man defense, as his receivers’ lack of separation can backfire — iffy explosiveness in the passing game again appears to be one of Utah’s greatest liabilities — but between a solid run game and Rising’s efficiency, Utah is almost never off schedule. UCLA’s run defense is awfully good, but we’ll see if it’s good enough.

We’ll also see if DTR can maintain his current run of form. In two conference games, he has completed 77% of his passes for 549 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions while also rushing for 109 yards and a nasty TD. He looks as confident as he’s ever been, though Utah’s hard-hitting defense has a way of making life frustrating for quarterbacks.

The Pac-12 has improved significantly in 2022. Part of that is because of the work of new coaches such as USC’s Lincoln Riley, Washington’s Kalen DeBoer and Oregon’s Dan Lanning, but UCLA and Utah, with their incumbents, have looked the part of top-15 teams for most (but not quite all) of the season. The winner of this one scores a huge tiebreaker in what could remain a crowded and thrilling conference race.