UCLA Football Preview: Bruins Will Need to Stop Arizona's Grant Gunnell
Last year, Gunnell torched UCLA for 352 yards in his first career start.
This Saturday, the UCLA Bruins will host the Arizona Wildcats at the Rose Bowl at 5pm PT. The game will air on Fox with Aaron Goldsmith and Brady Quinn calling the game.
So far this season, the Wildcats are 0-2, having lost to Southern Cal and Washington. Arizona’s game against Southern Cal was close, with the Trojans winning 34-30. Last week, the Huskies topped the Wildcats, 44-27.
That means that, despite the fact that, according to Noel Mazzone, he only calls 4 or 5 plays each game, just in different order, the Wildcat offense has the potential to score some points.
Let’s look at who will be playing offensively for Arizona.
Offensive Line
Line wins games. Given that the Arizona offensive line was a patchwork last year, it’s no surprise the team struggled to win.
This year, the line is anchored by redshirt senior Josh McCauley. In addition to starting the first two games of the season, McCauley has started 22 of 24 games in 2018 and 2019.
To McCauley’s left, the Wildcats will have junior Donovan Laie at guard and sophomore Jordan Morgan. Laie has started all 24 games Arizona has played since he arrived in Tucson, though 22 of those starts were at left tackle. Arizona moved him to guard in order to get Morgan in at left tackle late last season.
On the right side, the Wildcats have Robert Congel starting at guard. Congel began his college career at Texas A&M and transferred to Arizona when Kevin Sumlin left College Station for Tucson. Last season, Congel started eight of the ten games in played in but, like Laie, he too shifted positions when Morgan became the starting left tackle.
Paiton Fears starts for Arizona at right tackle. Fears joined the Wildcats last season after transferring from Hutchinson Junior College in Kansas. Last season, he played in 11 games and started five at right tackle. Fears also started two games at left tackle.
Quarterback
Last season, Grant Gunnell made his first career start against the Bruins and UCLA’s defense made him look like a Heisman Trophy candidate. Gunnell completed 29 of 44 passes for 352 yards. Despite that amount of yardage, he only had one touchdown pass against the Bruins last year, but he made it count by throwing a 75-yard pass to Bam Smith. Ironically, that game may have been the reason that Paul Rhoads is now Arizona’s defensive coordinator because UCLA’s DBs played so poorly last year that Chip Kelly needed to make a change on his coaching staff, though it doesn’t explain how Kevin Sumlin thought it was a good idea to make Rhoads his DC.
So far this season, Gunnell has thrown for 289 yards against Southern Cal and 259 yards against Washington. In both games, he threw for three touchdowns.
The bottom line here is simple: UCLA cannot afford to allow Gunnell to torch them like he did last year. If he does, it’s going to be another long night for the Bruins.
Receivers
When I first looked at the receivers, I planned to talk about how young Arizona’s receivers are this season. That was before I realized that Gunnell has thrown for more than 250 yards in each game.
Interestingly, Gunnell’s favorite target may not see the field this weekend. So far this season, Stanley Berryhill III has caught 13 passes for 135 yards and three touchdowns, but despite these numbers, he is listed third on this week’s depth chart behind both Boobie Curry and Drew Dixon. So, it will be interesting to see how much playing time Berryhill gets on Saturday and it’s something to look out for because the Arizona offense might get a lot more one-dimensional without him in it. Of course, Curry could just get more targets if Berryhill is out.
Gunnell’s second favorite target this season has been slot receiver Tayvian Cunningham. So far, he has pulled in seven catches for 126 yards and one touchdown. He will likely get plenty of playing time, despite being listed second on the depth chart behind Jamarye Joiner.
Gunnell’s third favorite target is freshman Ma’jon Wright. Like Berryhill and Cunningham, Wright is not listed as a starter either, but he’s made five catches for 75 yards and a touchdown. He’s listed second on the depth chart behind redshirt junior Brian Casteel.
At least, Gunnell doesn’t appear to throw to his tight ends much. Arizona tight ends Bryce Wolma and Zach Williams have combined for just four receptions for 20 yards.
Running Backs
Arizona’s starting running back is senior Gary Brightwell. Brightwell has been the featured back in Noel Mazzone’s offense this season. So far, he has 32 carries for 170 yards. No other Arizona runner has broken 100 yards yet this season. In fact, the only Wildcat with more than 30 yards rushing is Gunnell with 87 yards.
Overall, the Wildcats are averaging 115 yards per game on the ground. So, I expect to see the Bruins hold their opponent under 100 yards rushing for their third game in a row.
Analysis
Noel Mazzone’s offense has always been pass-heavy with a featured back. We saw this when he was in Westwood with Brett Hundley and Paul Perkins. So, this looks to be a typical Mazzone offense. It’s going to test the Bruin DBs while increasing the importance of the Bruin pass rush.
The Bruins will need to put pressure on Gunnell and not give him time to find an open receiver. Of course, that’s easier said than done as evidenced by Gunnell’s performance against UCLA last season.
Go Bruins!
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