Las Vegas Bowl: BYU vs. UCLA

Analysis
BYU will be making its third consecutive trip to the Las Vegas Bowl and coach Bronco Mendenhall has his team flying high after claiming the Mountain West title for the second year in a row. Winning the conference crown is quite an accomplishment considering the Cougars lost quarterback John Beck to graduation and new starter Max Hall hadn’t thrown a pass in a college game until this season.

These two teams should be relatively familiar with one another, as they hooked up for a 27-17 UCLA victory in the second week of the season. Although the Bruins claimed the victory in September, these two teams are headed in completely opposite directions.

Injuries have riddled the Bruins offense this season, particularly under center. Three different quarterbacks have started and as a team, the Bruins are completing less than 50 percent of their passes. With uncertainty at quarterback, the offensive load will rest with running back Chris Markey. Although Markey is the go-to guy for this offense, the strength of the Cougars is their run defense, which has held opponents to less than 100 yards per game on the ground. If Markey cannot keep the chains moving, the Bruins would have to rely on inconsistent quarterback play to win the game – something that appears unlikely based on the last month of the season.

The Bruins aren’t statistically terrible on defense, but this isn’t the same Cougar offense that took the field in September. Hall and his receivers should have success against a struggling Bruins secondary, while redshirt freshman running back Harvey Unga has battered opponents for over 1,000 rushing yards this season.

The Bruins just seem happy to be here, while the Cougars look to claim back-to-back Las Vegas Bowl titles, avenge the loss from earlier this season and head into 2008 with a world of momentum.

Breakdown: UCLA
Campus Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Distance to Las Vegas: 270 miles
All-Time Bowl Game Record: 13–14–1
2007 Season: 6–6, 5–4 Pac-10

NCAA Rankings (yards/points per game totals):
Rush Offense: 62 (150)
Pass Offense: 99 (185)
Scoring Offense: 90 (23)
Rush Defense: 25 (115)
Pass Defense: 71 (234)
Scoring Defense: 33 (23)
Turnover Margin: 83 (-0.33)

Additional Notes:
UCLA has lost four out of their last five games, with the victory being a 16-0 shutout against the injury-decimated Oregon Ducks … The Bruins own a 7-1 lead in the all-time series with BYU … Quarterback Ben Olson originally signed with BYU out of high school, but chose to attend UCLA after serving a church mission ... Led by free safety Matt Slater, the Bruins rank third in the NCAA with an average of 26.2 yards on kickoff returns.

Breakdown: BYU
Campus Location: Provo, Utah
Distance to Las Vegas: 377 miles
All-Time Bowl Game Record: 8–16–1
2007 Season: 10–2, 8–0 Mountain West

NCAA Rankings (yards/points per game totals):
Rush Offense: 58 (154)
Pass Offense: 13 (304)
Scoring Offense: 42 (31)
Rush Defense: 9 (92)
Pass Defense: 41 (215)
Scoring Defense: 13 (19)
Turnover Margin: 92 (-0.50)

Additional Notes:
The Cougars are riding a nine-game winning streak – the second longest in the NCAA … Quarterback Max Hall leads all sophomore signal-callers in the NCAA with 3,617 passing yards … Running back Harvey Unga is the first freshman in BYU history to go over the 1,000-yard rushing yard mark in a season … Under Bronco Mendenhall, the Cougars are 24-3 when rushing for over 100 yards … The Cougars are the only defense in the NCAA this season who have not allowed a running back to top 100 yards in a game.

Prediction: BYU by 13