Tag: LSU vs UCLA

Areas for concern against the UCLA Bruins for the LSU Tigers

The biggest areas of concern for the LSU Tigers in the opener against the 1-0 UCLA Bruins.

Looking ahead to the season opener for the LSU Tigers, there are some areas of concern with the UCLA Bruins. They knocked off Hawaii in the season opener, 44-10.

Watching that came felt like watching the varsity scrimmage the junior varsity team. The Rainbow Warriors were never really in that game. On the opening drive, the punter kneeled the ball when going for a low snap, it was all downhill from there. The Bruins were in scoring position on the very first snap. Hawaii was down 17-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game.

UCLA would let off the gas a bit in the second half, as they led 31-3 at the half. Facing LSU won’t be near as easy but the Bruins still pose issues for a team getting into their first action of the year.

[listicle id=23446]

Looking at the biggest areas of concern for LSU in the opener:

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

LSU vs UCLA: How to watch, listen, or stream the season opener

How to watch, listen, and stream the LSU Tigers’ season opener against the UCLA Bruins in the Rose Bowl.

The LSU Tigers will kick off their season against the UCLA Bruins on Saturday night in Pasadena, California. The very first trip in school history to the iconic Rose Bowl Stadium.

The Tigers look to open the season 1-0 for the third time in four years under head coach Ed Orgeron. Coach O was a member of the USC Trojans staff from 1998-2004, he returned in 2010-2013. The final season in Southern California was spent as the interim head coach following the firing of Lane Kiffin. He would resign following the hiring of Steve Sarkisian.

During his time with the Trojans, the team was 6-1 from 1998-2004 and 2-2 from 2010-13. LSU looks to take the first victory in the series, UCLA is set to return the favor as they visit Death Valley in 2024. That year the Tigers will play both USC and UCLA in their nonconference schedule.

[listicle id=23446]

Sophomore quarterback Max Johnson is hoping to see the same success he saw against Florida and Ole Miss last season. He sets to get his first start of the year. In the final two games of last year, Johnson threw for 674 yards with six touchdowns to one interception. His top target, Kayshon Boutte is also looking to continue the trend of 2020. He caught 27 passes for 527 yards and four touchdowns in the final three weeks.

Johnson and Boutte are just two of the players to watch when the game kicks off on Saturday.

How To Watch, Listen, & Stream

TV: Fox

Kickoff Time: 7:30 pm CST

Listen: 98.1, 104.5, 107.3 FM (Baton Rouge)

Full Listing- LSU Radio Network

Stream: Fox Sports App

[listicle id=23498]

Contact/Follow us @LSUTigersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Louisiana State news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Patrick on Twitter: @PatrickConnCFB

Who are the experts pickings to win in the LSU-UCLA matchup

The LSU Tigers and UCLA Bruins will meet for the first time in their history. We look at who the experts are picking for this game.

The start of the college football season for the LSU Tigers is just days away. The team will travel to Los Angeles on Thursday and practice at the Rose Bowl on Friday. LSU and UCLA are set for 7:30 pm CST kick-off in Pasadena.

There are plenty of storylines to watch in this game. We have Ed Orgeron returning to Southern California, where he was once the interim head coach for the USC Trojans. The school opted to hire Steve Sarkisian to be the next head coach forcing Orgeron to eventually land in Baton Rouge.

The Tigers and Bruins will face off for the first time in their history.

UCLA vs the SEC: 18-15-4

The Bruins have played against eight of the SEC’s 14 members. This game will give UCLA games against nine teams from the conference. Against Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Texas A&M, they are 8-8.

LSU vs the Pac-12: 22-4-0

The Tigers have played against nine of the Pac-12’s members, UCLA will make No. 10. The only Pac-12 team that has yet to lose to LSU after meeting them on the field is Stanford.

[listicle id=23419]

Here is what the experts think about the UCLA-LSU matchup on Saturday night:

LSU-UCLA: College Football News game prediction

A look at how College Football News sees the game against UCLA going for the LSU Tigers.

Saturday night in Pasadena, California, the LSU Tigers will finally get back on the field. In a wild week that saw them relocate football operations to Houston, Texas, at NRG Stadium, they are that much closer to the season debut.

There are plenty of storylines heading into this game. For starters, how will uprooting to Houston impact the team? The offense will have a new look under passing game coordinator DJ Mangas and offensive coordinator Jake Peetz, who spent a season under Joe Brady in Carolina. Max Johnson and Kayshon Boutte headline the offense looking to return to their 2019 form.

On the topic of returning to 2019 form, we have starting cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. Last season was not what many expected from the boundary defender that stole the show against Clemson in the CFP national championship game on the defensive side. New defensive coordinator Darote Jones hopes to bring back the defense known for taking the ball away.

[lawrence-related id=23487,23448,23436]

As we look forward to the game on Saturday night in the Rose Bowl, our colleagues at College Football News break down how the LSU-UCLA game ends.

What CFN Says…

UCLA will come out red hot.

The defense will be flying all over the field, Thompson-Robinson will be great on his first two drives, and social media will be all over the Bruins as they get out to an early lead.

But LSU will work their way back.

They lines will start to take over as the game goes on, the secondary will clamp down and pick off a few passes, and Johnson will overcome a mediocre first half with a great final 30 minutes.

UCLA will look great against a terrific team, but it’s not going to have quite enough to pull off the win in the final ten minutes. It’ll have two late drives with take the momentum back, but LSU will hold firm on both of them.

[vertical-gallery id=23451]

LSU vs UCLA Prediction, Game Preview

LSU vs UCLA prediction and game preview. Saturday, September 4

LSU vs UCLA prediction and game preview.

LSU vs UCLA Broadcast

Date: Saturday, September 4
Game Time: 8:30 ET
Venue: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA
Network: FOX

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f1343a1wt7q817p7 player_id=none image=https://collegefootballnews.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

– All of the CFN Fearless Predictions

LSU (0-0) vs UCLA (1-0) Game Preview

Why LSU Will Win

LSU is going to be good again.

No, it’s not the 2019 version that ripped through the college football world on the way to the national title, but it’s also not going to be the rebuilding 2020 version that tried hard but had way too many problems on both sides of the ball.

QB Max Johnson has been in big games and big moments in his limited time in the system, and he should get time behind a big line full of NFL prospects and future SEC all-stars.

It’s the other side of the ball that should be the big difference.

The defense that totally crashed and burned last year gets a new coordinator in Daronte Jones, but it returns what should be the best corner pair in college football in Derek Stingley Jr. and Eli Ricks.

The secondary might have struggled last season overall, but it came up with a whole lot of picks and it’s about to be helped more by an improved pass rush.

UCLA might have been great in the 44-10 win over Hawaii, but it got away with a rough day from QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson. He only hit half of his passes for 130 yards and a touchdown as the running game and defense took over in the win, but …

– Week 1 College Football Expert Picks

Why UCLA Will Win

DTR is better than he showed on Saturday. That’s why you schedule Hawaii to start the season instead of LSU – the hope is for the kinks to be worked out and the timing to be down now.

Even with the passing attack off, the Bruin offense worked thanks to a huge day from the O line and top running backs. Brittain Brown ran for 78 yards and a touchdown and Michigan transfer Zach Charbonnet ripped off 106 yards and three touchdowns on six carries.

No, UCLA won’t run for 244 yards and four scores on LSU, but as the Week 0 game showed, the lines are in place to battle with a team as good as what’s coming to Pasadena.

– Week 1 College Football Schedule, Predictions

What’s Going To Happen

UCLA will come out red hot.

The defense will be flying all over the field, Thompson-Robinson will be great on his first two drives, and social media will be all over the Bruins as they get out to an early lead.

But LSU will work their way back.

They lines will start to take over as the game goes on, the secondary will clamp down and pick off a few passes, and Johnson will overcome a mediocre first half with a great final 30 minutes.

UCLA will look great against a terrific team, but it’s not going to have quite enough to pull off the win in the final ten minutes. It’ll have two late drives with take the momentum back, but LSU will hold firm on both of them.

LSU vs UCLA Prediction, Line

LSU 34, UCLA 27
LSU -3, o/u: 65
ATS Confidence out of 5: 3.5

Must See Rating: 4

5: The Many Saints of Newark
1: Space Jam: A New Legacy

[protected-iframe id=”361699434b6d70baf15f631ed2408ac1-97672683-92922408″ info=”https://www.googletagservices.com/tag/js/gpt.js” ]

– CFN 2021 Preview of all 130 teams

LSU vs UCLA Notes: Eli Ricks and Derek Stingley Jr returned to practice on Monday

Head coach Ed Orgeron provided injury updates on the starting cornerbacks on Tuesday.

The LSU Tigers were back on the practice field on Monday. Only this week they are practicing in Houston at NRG Stadium. Top defenders Eli Ricks and Derek Stingley Jr were back at practice. Stingley wearing the non-contact gold jersey during practice. Stingley has missed time due to a minor camp injury.

Head coach Ed Orgeron joined ‘Off the Bench’ on 104.5 FM in Baton Rouge on Tuesday morning. He looked fine. Just coming back, it took him a little while to get going. Once he warmed up, he was fine,” Oregon stated. He also mentioned that Ricks was fine after missing time with an injury.

The Tigers will continue to practice in Houston through Thursday. They will travel to Los Angeles and practice at the Rose Bowl on Friday ahead of Saturday night’s game against the UCLA Bruins.

“They’re eating good. They’re resting well, going to study hall. We brought our academic people with us. We’re continuing on with business at hand.”- Orgeron on 104.5 FM

The defense gets a boost with both Stingley and Ricks getting back to practice ahead of the game against the Bruins. UCLA didn’t really challenge the Hawaii defense through the air in the first game of the season. With how well they ran the ball, they didn’t need to.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson attempted 20 passes against the Rainbow Warriors secondary. He completed 50% of his attempts for 6.5 yards per attempt. He did throw a touchdown to Kazmeir Allen. Chip Kelly’s offense will likely need to throw it a bit more against the LSU defense.

[lawrence-related id=23409,23399]

Ali Gaye, BJ Ojulari, and Andre Anthony will need to set the edge in this game with how well UCLA ran the ball with Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown. Forcing them to throw the ball against the secondary will likely play right into the hands of the secondary. The Bruins rushed for 244 yards in the opener, last year the Tigers gave up 169.1 yards on the ground a season ago.

LSU vs UCLA: Defense has to be ready to stop the run

A big key for LSU on Saturday, slow down the UCLA rush attack.

Going into the first week of college football for the LSU Tigers, we look at the UCLA Bruins matchup. In week zero of the season, the Bruins rattled off a 24-3 edge in the first quarter as they coasted to the opening win of the season. The first time under Chip Kelly the team won the opener.

Looking at the offense for UCLA, Dorian Thompson-Robinson is a dual-threat in the backfield. Against the Rainbow Warriors, he completed just 50% of his passes with 130 yards and a touchdown through the air. He added 16 more yards on the ground. He is capable of so much more, but given that the game was well in hand after 15 minutes of player, DTR didn’t have to.

The big key for the LSU defense and Daronte Jones will be limiting the damage their two-headed running back attack deals out. Former Michigan running back Zach Charbonnet made his presence felt early on. He carried the ball just six times for 17.7 yards per run. He totaled 106 yards and scored a touchdown on every two carries.

The second back to slow down will be Brittain Brown, the former Duke transfer. Last season he rushed for 6.6 yards per carry. Against Hawaii Brown accounted for 78 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown.

[listicle id=23359]

The defensive line up front has to be able to get pressure and a push against the offensive line. The big boys for the Bruins allowed just three pressures all game, starting left guard Paul Grattan Jr was guilty of two of them. Ali Gaye, BJ Ojulari, Andre Anthony, and Neil Farrell Jr need to create a lot more pressure. They should very well do that.

When the defense has the opportunity to tackle Charbonnet or Brown, they need to finish taking the ball carrier to the ground. Against Hawaii, the duo accounted for 92 yards after contact. They forced a total of eight missed tackles on running plays.

The Tigers defense needs to slow down the run and force Thompson-Robinson to take to the air. The LSU secondary should be ready to take the ball away from receivers. Putting the game in the hands of the best cornerback duo in the country will serve this team well, provided the front seven are getting to the quarterback.

[listicle id=23393]