Cal Football: 5 Questions for UCLA Beat Writer Heading Into Saturday's Game

Will Bruins QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson be Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year? Is Chip Kelly's job safe?

Cal and UCLA, which face each other in Pasadena on Saturday night, are both coming off big offensive performances in wins in which their quarterbacks were the stars.

As is our weekly custom during the football season, we talk today with a beat writer who covers Cal's next opponent, UCLA, which is coming off a 62-33 victory over USC.

Sam Connon, who operates the All Bruins website, answered five questions about UCLA, ranging from an assessment of quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson to the job security of Bruins head coach Chip Kelly.

We provide a snippet quote from each video, but it is best to listen to Connon's entire answer in the videos accompanying the questions:

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Question No. 1: UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson has put up some impressive numbers this year. How would you assess his season, and does he have a chance to be named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year?

"I would say there's a pretty good chance [to win Player of the Year]," Connon said as part of his answer in the video atop this story. "The way the Pac-12 has played out this year I don't think there's a heavy favorite.

"He has a real shot. If it goes to a quarterback for Offensive Player of the Year it will probably end up going to DTR."

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Question No. 2: We keep hearing that Chip Kelly's job is in jeopardy. Did the win over USC soften the criticism, and will he be the Bruins' coach next year?

"I think the USC game definitely softened things up for him, not just in winning the game, but how he won the game," Connon said, in part, in the video above. "He's definitely a lot safer after the USC game than he was before  it. If he had lost it, he might not be the coach of UCLA right now."

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Question No. 3: How would you assess running back Zach Charbonnet, and is he getting as much credit as he deserves?

"Zach Charbonnet, for as big of a guy as he was at the beginning of the year, has been kind of overshadowed by DTR," Connon said among other things in this video. "Zach Charbonnet has shown at different points this year that he can be a really good running back and that he's probably an NFL-level running back at some time soon."

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Question No. 4: Do UCLA's 62 points and 609 yards against USC indicate that the Bruins' offense is getting better, or was it more a product of USC's poor defense?

"A lot of it had to do with USC," Connon said. "It was more of a return to form.

"When UCLA s running the ball well and when Dorian Thompson-Robinson s not making mistakes, this is a UCLA offense that can get 35 points and 450 yards in its sleep."

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Question No. 5: The Bruins' defense has allowed a lot of points and a lot of passing yards, but has been pretty good against the run. How would you assess UCLA's defense, and who are some of its top defensive players?

"I would say the defense schematically has not been there this year," Connon said. "Jerry Azzinaro, the defensive coordinator, has come under a lot of fire for how he's run things, how he's managed things.

"The UCLA pass defense the last four years under Azzinano has just been statistically one of the worst in the country. It may have improved a little bit this year, but still not great, but that run defense is pretty good."

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Cover photo of Dorian Thompson-Robinson by Richard Mackson, USA TODAY Sports

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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