UCLA Football: Bruins Plummet in New Big Ten Team Rankings

Jeremy Hanna | Aug 21, 2024

Jul 24, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster speaks to the media during the Big 10 football media day at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

At the moment, UCLA Football seems to have more questions than it does answers.

Everything about the Bruins this year seems new. DeShaun Foster is taking over head coaching duties from Chip Kelly. Eric Bieniemy and Ikaika Malloe are serving as brand-new offensive and defensive coordinators respectively. Even the team's conference, the Big Ten, is new for this football team.

On top of that, UCLA joined three other Pac-12 teams (Oregon, USC, and Washington) in changing to the Big Ten, a tougher and more competitive conference.

While there's no telling at this point how these changes will affect the team, a majority of pundits seem to believe things aren't going to work out well for UCLA. This includes former college football coach and ESPN analyst Dan Mullen, who ranked every team in the Big Ten Conference.

Of the 18 teams, Mullen ranked UCLA dead last.

I think there are 5 teams that could make it to the title game this year in the @bigten @espn @ESPNCFB pic.twitter.com/l51FTXM2CV

— Dan Mullen (@CoachDanMullen) August 21, 2024

"DeShaun Foster’s got a difficult job in 2024, following former head coach Chip Kelly’s late departure for the Ohio State OC gig," noted Andy Backstrom of On3. "The Bruins are trusting redshirt senior Ethan Garbers to break out as the full-time starting quarterback."

While Garbers has been part of a revolving door of quarterbacks last year, he more than proved that he could effectively run the team in the LA Bowl. After being down 16-7, the redshirt senior threw for 152 yards with two touchdowns to lead the Bruins to a 35-22 victory.

Still, there are other factors that could make this season difficult for UCLA, namely their schedule. The Bruins are facing a plethora of difficult teams, including LSU and a majority of the Big Ten. However, what makes the schedule most difficult is the travel.

This season, UCLA Football will have to travel 22,048 miles to face their opponents this year. That's almost 5,000 miles more than the next farthest team. Even USC, which is only 24.5 miles away, doesn't have to travel as much, logging only 12,710 miles for the 2024 season.

Needless to say, Foster has his work cut out for him in his first year as head coach. Despite this, he believes they'll prove the doubters wrong.

"I don't get too caught up in that [the public opinion]. I keep my players level-headed, they're not worried about that, but we're fired up," Foster said. "It is a little light underneath you. We just take it in stride. You just better hope that you didn’t say something and I beat you because it’s going to be bad."