Local college football kicks off this Saturday

It is better late than never. UCLA and USC football teams will take the field for the first time this season, three months behind schedule because of the coronavirus. A lot of the other major football conferences started playing a few months ago but the Pac-12 will kick off their season Saturday.

USC will play a rare west coast 9 a.m. game against Arizona State and UCLA will travel to Colorado to take on the Buffalos at 4 p.m. Both teams have a lot of question marks, but both teams have returning starters at quarterback. At UCLA it is junior, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and at USC it's sophomore Kedon Slovis.

Both teams will play a six game schedule and there will be no non-conference games played and once again the Trojans look better than the Bruins on paper and once again potential does not translate into wins but if Slovis is better than he was last year the Trojans will be hard to beat if their defense steps up. Behind his leadership the Trojans averaged 455 yards and 32 points per game.

If Thompson-Robinson can cut down on his turnovers the Bruins have a chance to be a .500 team. Last year he had 19 turnovers, 12 interceptions and seven fumbles. He threw for 2,071 yards and 21 touchdowns.

The last four years the Bruins are 17-32 and the Trojans during that same period are 34-18. UCLA coach Chip Kelly is 7-17 in the last two years.

 

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