How to Watch, Listen and Stream Boise State Broncos vs. UCLA Bruins: LA Bowl Game Time, TV Schedule, Radio, Odds and More

Tonight, the Bruins and the Broncos meet in the third LA Bowl game.

Will the UCLA offensive line be able to keep Ethan Garbers upright and healthy against Boise State’s aggressive defense? (Photo Credit: Don Liebig/uclabruins.com)

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The UCLA Bruins will travel down the 405 Freeway to SoFi Stadium to play the Boise State Broncos, this year’s Mountain West Conference champions in the third LA Bowl game. It’s one of the very first bowl games this season.

The Broncos pose an interesting challenge for the Bruins. Not only do the Broncos have a winning record, but they also possess a rushing defense which is ranked 29th in the nation. All of UCLA’s five losses this year have come against teams which are ranked in the Top 50 in rushing defense and the Bruins have not beaten a single team whose rush defense is ranked in the Top 50 in that category.

Can the Bruins find a way to get past the Broncos this evening? Personally, I wouldn’t count on it. It’s the kind of thing which should cost a head coach his job, yet Chip Kelly remains at the helm in Westwood and will almost certainly be there when the Bruins begin play in the Big Ten Conference next season.

Odds

The Bruins are a 5.5-point favorite over the Broncos in tonight’s game.

Both teams come to SoFi Stadium with substantial changes in the coaching staff and personnel from where they were when November started. UCLA has lost three coaches and had eight players enter the Transfer Portal while Boise State has a new head coach after Andy Avalos was fired in November and has had a few key players also enter the Transfer Portal.

Last night, I wrote about how UCLA has lost every game they have played against teams whose rushing defense was ranked in the Top 50 rushing defenses nationally. This seems to be a key statistic. It’s also an indictment of Chip Kelly due to his failure to develop an offense which can effectively counter a good rushing defense. The Bruins’ passing attack has been, well, passable, but it hasn’t been good enough to get the team past opponents who are able to stop UCLA’s running game. The bottom line here is that the Bruin offense will not be able to overcome having their running attack slowed again. Not only do I think that the Bruins won’t cover the 5.5 points, but I also don’t expect a win today. Take the Broncos and the points.

The Over/Under is 49.5 points. Even with it set that low, I still think it’s a stretch to go with the over. In their five losses, the Bruins have scored an average of just 11 points. Even if the Bruins put up almost double that and score 21, the defense would have to give up 29 to cover the Over. I don’t see it happening. Take the Under this week.

After the UC Berkeley game, my record for the season is now 5-6 against the spread this season, having been right for the games against Coastal Carolina, SDSU, Washington State, Oregon State and Stanford while I was wrong for the Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, Southern Cal and UC Berkeley games. The Bruin defense held Berkeley to 33 points in the regular season finale, allowing the teams to cover the Under. As a result, I’m now 8-3 on the Over/Under, with wins for the SDSU, Utah, Stanford, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, Southern Cal and UC Berkeley games and losses for the Coastal Carolina, Washington State, and Oregon State games. I declined to offer any predictions for the NCCU game.

Tailgating and Game Time Weather Forecast

If you’re heading to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood for the today’s LA Bowl game, don’t expect to be tailgating, as tailgating has been prohibited. WTF? Personally, I’m a season ticket holder who chose not to buy LA Bowl tickets in a personal protest of the retention of Chip Kelly, but having heard that SoFi is prohibiting tailgating reaffirmed my decision not to go. As a UCLA season ticket holder since the 90s, I’ve been to a lot of bad football games, but I’ve never been to a bad tailgate. Not being allowed to tailgate is a good reason NOT to go to a game, and frankly, the next time I hear someone claiming to be a UCLA fan suggest that the Bruins should play their home games at SoFi, I fully intend to remind them how SoFi prohibited tailgating today. That’s just unacceptable.

With no tailgating allowed, I’m not going to offer a tailgating forecast.

Expect it to be in the upper 60s and partly cloudy at kickoff. Now, keeping in mind that Sam Farmer of the LA Times has noted that there is a prevailing wind which blows through the stadium which makes it feel about 10 degrees cooler than the actual temperature. By halftime, the temperature will slipping to 65°. Around the beginning of the fourth quarter, the temperature should be down in to the mid-to-lower 60s and, by the end of the second half, the temperature should be about 61°.

Depth Chart

By the end of the regular season, the Bruin depth chart had become a bit of a cruel joke because it didn’t reflect changes Chip Kelly has made to the depth chart.

As a result of the Transfer Portal opening on December 4th and eight Bruins entering the Portal, there are numerous changes to the depth chart which I went over earlier this week. In fact, there are so many changes to UCLA’s depth chart for today’s game that I’m going to include both the official depth chart from the UC Berkeley game along with the official depth chart for today’s LA Bowl game.

Here is UCLA’s official depth chart as it was for the UC Berkeley game:

Here is the depth chart for today’s LA Bowl game:

Let’s take a look at how to watch, listen and stream tonight’s LA Bowl game.

UCLA Football (7-5, 4-5)

• Opponent: Boise State Broncos (8-5, 6-2)

• Series Record: UCLA leads, 1-0.

• When: 4:30 pm PT, Saturday, December 16, 2023

• Where: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA

• Live TV: ABC with Dave Flemming, Brock Osweiler and Kayla Burton

• Live Stream: WatchESPN.com, ABC.com, and the ESPN app

• Radio/Audio:
  AM570 in Los Angeles with Josh Lewin, Matt Stevens and Wayne Cook
  National Broadcast: ESPN Radio with Mike Couzens and Tom Ramsey
  Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 84 (UCLA Call)

• Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast

• Game Notes:
  UCLA
  Boise State

• Rebroadcast (All times PT):
  Sunday, 12/17 at 1:00 pm on ESPN2
  Monday, 12/17 at 4:00 pm on ESPNU
  

Go Bruins!!!

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