Pregame Guesses: UCLA Travels to the Bay Area to Face UC Berkeley
Pregame Guesses: UCLA Travels to the Bay Area to Face UC Berkeley
Zach Charbonnet's 2022 season is going into the UCLA record books--the only question is "how high will he go?" Also, can UC Berkeley's offense and QB Jack Plummer exploit UCLA's defense?
Greetings Bruin fans. Today’s Pregame Guesses will be the final regular season Pregame Guesses of 2022. While we know that the Bruins will be bowling this postseason, the result of today’s game versus UC Berkeley will still affect the quality of such bowl. UCLA (8-3, 5-3 Pac-12) needs to pick itself up after last week’s loss to Southern Cal and make a statement in Strawberry Canyon this afternoon against the Golden Bears (4-7, 2-6 Pac-12). UC Berkeley will try to carry momentum from their 27-20 victory over Pac-12 cellar dweller, Stanford, in The Big Game.
Many of the road destinations in the Pac-12 do not make it easy when it comes to selecting songs for this article. There are not a lot of artists from Tucson, Pullman, or Corvalis, to name a few. Berkeley (and the Bay Area in general) does not suffer from that fate. With such a wealth of possibilities, I am picking one of the groups of my generation, Green Day, and a song from a time when UCLA was on a pretty good run in football, the 1990s. Here is “Burnout,” the first song off of Green Day’s sophomore album, “Dookie.”
Great song. Great album. On to the guesses . . .
You’ve heard about the unstoppable force meets the immovable object, right? It’s also called the Omnipotence Paradox, the details of which are far above my pay grade. Well, when UC Berkeley has the ball today versus the UCLA defense, it won’t be the unstoppable force versus the immovable object. Rather, it will be the “easily stoppable farce” versus the “very movable object,” with Berkeley’s #97 ranked scoring offense being the former and UCLA’s #90 ranked scoring defense being the latter. The Bruins allow an average of 28.35 points per game in 2022, while the Golden Bears only average 23.5 points per game. Will these numbers more or less play out in today’s game? Pregame Guess Number One: After giving up 48 points to the Trojans at home last week, how many points with the UCLA defense concede to the Golden Bear offense this afternoon?
Zach Charbonnet is going to be finishing up two very successful seasons in a UCLA uniform. Deciding to return to UCLA for his senior season appears to have been a good choice as he has had a statistically superior season while satisfying the eye test week in and week out. In 2022, Charbonnet has already bettered his 2021 numbers with 1,240 rushing yards and counting. And he is doing it with less carries to produce a scintillating 7.3 yard per carry average.
Today, Charbonnet will break into the top ten UCLA single season rushing yardage. He only needs four yards to jump into the top ten but, depending on his performance, Charbonnet could reach as high as #4 on the list today, if he rushes for 166 yards or more. That may be a stretch but it is certainly possible. If that happens, only Johnathan Franklin in 2012, Paul Perkins in 2014, and Karim Abdul-Jabbar in 1995 would have more single season rushing yards. A very doable 104 yard game would land Charbonnet in seventh place, ahead of Paul Perkins’ 2015 campaign. Pregame Guess Number Two: Predict Zach Charbonnet’s rushing yards for the Berkeley contest.
UCLA’s passing defense has regressed in the second half of the season, as has its defense as a whole. Obviously, Bill McGovern’s absence has hurt the Bruin defensive unit and UCLA is now #117 in passing yards allowed, surrendering an average of 270 yards per game through the air. Last week, Southern Cal quarterback Caleb Williams carved up the Bruins like yesterday’s Thanksgiving turkey, throwing for 470 yards. Berkeley’s quarterback, Jack Plummer, is no Caleb Williams. But the senior has been solid for the Golden Bears, throwing for 254.6 yards per game, 17 touchdowns, versus nine interceptions. Pregame Guess Number Three: How many passing yards will Plummer throw for against the Bruin defense?
BONUS GUESS: The Bruins are favored by ten and 1/2 points on the road in Berkeley. Will they be flat against the 4-7 Golden Bears or will they come out strong to finish the regular season on a high note? Do the Bruins cover the spread?
Make your guesses. Eat your leftover turkey. And . . . Go Bruins!!
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