The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Ohhhhhh no. Don’t just dismiss the UCLA 44-10 win over Hawaii as a layup over an overmatched Group of Five team.
Hawaii isn’t that bad. It should show off a solid defense and more effective offense as the season goes on, and it might just have enough in the bag to make a push in the West division of the Mountain West. But the victory for UCLA was more than that.
It was the first non-conference win for Chip Kelly since he took over the Bruins in 2018.
It also means UCLA won its season opener for just the second time since 2015, and it took an epic comeback by Josh Rosen – or an epic gag by Texas A&M, depending on your view – in 2017 to get the one win.
There’s no excuse for UCLA to not have an amazing football program.
Elite school, elite city, elite weather, elite everything – but for whatever reason, it’s one of those programs that hasn’t quite been able to put it all together on a consistent basis.
It’s not time to crown the Bruins and put them in the College Football Playoff after one win over Hawaii, but as tone-setters go, yeah, this matters.
Now, all the warm fuzzies might go drifting off over the San Gabriel Mountains this Saturday after LSU comes to town, but this was the type of dominant performance – even with QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson a bit off – to serve notice of what UCLA might be capable of.
– Bret, Nebraska, UTEP Winners & Losers
– The Super Seniors: One Really Big Thing
– Nebraska’s loss: Most Overrated Thing
– Learn from this already: What It All Means, Week 0