UCLA vs. Arizona State Week 5: Storylines to Watch
No. 20 UCLA football (3-1, 1-0 Pac-12) is scheduled to kick off its Week 5 game against Arizona State (3-1, 1-0) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
The Bruins lost the last game they played in the Rose Bowl to Fresno State, but they went on to bounce back on the road against Stanford the following week. The Sun Devils have gone down a very similar path in terms of the progression of their season, starting 2-0 before getting beat by a non-Power Five team that snuck into the Top 25 the week after, and then opening conference play with a win.
Heading into the Week 5 matchup, here are the most pressing questions we want to have answered by the final whistle.
Can the Bruins take control of the division?
It's been a long time since UCLA held sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 South.
Saturday will mark almost eight years, actually, as the last time the Bruins were alone atop the division was Week 6 of the 2013 season. They had just beaten Cal at home to improve to 5-0 on the season and 2-0 in conference play.
This time around, the Bruins won their Pac-12 opener and sit at 3-1 overall, tied with the Sun Devils in both categories. With Arizona, USC and Colorado already in the loss column and Utah on bye, the winner of Saturday's UCLA-Arizona State game will sit above the rest in the standings for the time being.
The fact of the matter is that the Bruins have spent very little of the Chip Kelly era as frontrunners. The first game they played as a top 25 team under Kelly, they lost to Fresno State.
In order to get to that top position, they'll need to win Saturday. Very rarely, if ever, has UCLA controlled its own destiny in recent years, and getting out to a 2-0 Pac-12 start with a head-to-head win over the next most-qualified contender in the division would put them squarely in the driver's seat moving forward.
Will Dorian Thompson-Robinson be 100%?
Just based on what we saw in practice this week, the answer is yes, but there are too many factors at play here to assume it's that simple.
For one, it initially seemed Thompson-Robinson was clutching his right shoulder throughout a large portion of the Stanford game. He went down out of bounds and rolled on the ground grabbing that same shoulder before missing one play, only for Kelly to call a pass when he reentered the game just minutes later.
Receiver Kyle Philips told reporters after the game it was what it looked like – a shoulder injury. But when Thompson-Robinson spoke with the media Monday morning, his answer wasn't quite as clear. The quarterback said the injury occurred on his non-throwing side, and that it was a "shoulder/arm/a whole lot of things" injury.
In practice throughout the week, Thompson-Robinson was a full participant, and the fact that he spoke to the media Monday is a pretty good sign that his status for Saturday is a 100% go.
Still though, it will be interesting to see if the seemingly complicated injury returns and ultimately affects either Thompson-Robinson's performance or Kelly's play-calling.
Who will step up in the passing game?
On the ground, it's pretty much a lock that one or both of Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown are going to have a good day.
For Thompson-Robinson to take advantage of their success and make the most out of the passing game, he'll need some of the other weapons to step up as well.
In the Fresno State game, it was receiver Kam Brown. Against Hawai'i, Kazmeir Allen showed out. Philips broke 100 yards and scored multiple touchdowns against both the Cardinal and Bulldogs. Tight end Greg Dulcich has been held mostly off the board so far this year, outside of his torrid outing against LSU, highlighted by a 75-yard touchdown.
Maybe it's Charbonnet who makes another leap as a pass-catcher, as he did against Stanford. And if he's drawing guys outside, threatening to break off 8-to-15 yards on every play, maybe that opens things up for Dulcich over the middle.
Or maybe receiver Chase Cota finally gets things going.
Either way, the passing game will be huge for UCLA in terms of separating themselves, and they'll be utilizing everything from play action to two-back formations in the process. The dynamic play-calling and offensive sets should open the door for someone to rise above the rest, now it's just a matter of who.
What's the solution for stopping Jayden Daniels?
No matter the system he's been in, Daniels has had a lot of trouble against UCLA in the past.
Daniels' passer rating of 180.4 in 2019 may look great on paper, but a lot of his stats came in garbage time before eventually losing. The Sun Devils moved from a spread offense to a more pro-style, multi-tight end based system ahead of 2020, and Daniels still couldn't crack the Bruins' code. To go along with 6 rushing yards – the second-fewest of his career – Daniels tossed an interception, muffed a snap and failed to convert on a key fourth down all in the second half of the loss.
With all of that being said, he is still an extremely dangerous and dynamic quarterback who can break open 50 yard touchdown runs on called pass plays.
When asked about bottling up Daniels again this year, Kelly said he and his staff would start from scratch, focusing more on Arizona State's film from 2021 than from 2019 and 2020. Daniels has been far more efficient and effective with his legs than with his arm this fall, so Kelly, defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro and assistant head coach Brian Norwood better have prepared their defense for his improvisation and athleticism by the time kickoff comes around Saturday night.
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