Football Welcomes LSU to Rose Bowl Saturday

GAME TWO:
Venue: Spieker Field at the Rose Bowl
Time: 5:30 p.m. PT
Television (FOX): Joe Davis (play-by-play), Brock Huard (analyst), Bruce Feldman (sideline reporter)
Radio (UCLA Sports Network from Learfield): AM 1150
Josh Lewin (play-by-play),Matt Stevens (analyst), Wayne Cook
(sideline reporter); Sirius Ch. 137 / XM Ch. 197 / SXM App 959
National Radio (Westwood One): Ryan Radtke, Derek Rackley

UCLA's season-opening homestand continues on Saturday, Sept. 4 as the Bruins welcome LSU to Spieker Field at the Rose Bowl for a 5:30 p.m. contest to be broadcast by FOX. The Bruin Learfield Radio Network will broadcast the contest, which will also be aired by Westwood One and over SiriusXM and the Varsity App. The battle with LSU will mark the first meeting between the schools in football.

UCLA owns an 18-15-4 record in games versus teams which comprise this year's SEC Conference. The Bruins split a home-and-home series with Texas A&M in the 2017 and 2016 seasons in its last encounter with an SEC opponent.

UCLA VS. LSU / SEC — While LSU and UCLA have not met on the gridiron, the Bruins have battled teams from the SEC quite often over the years and own a combined 18-15-4 record versus the current members of the league -- Alabama 2-1; Arkansas 1-0-1; Auburn 0-0; Florida 3-2; Georgia 0-2; Kentucky 0-0; LSU; Mississippi 0-0; Mississippi State 0-0; Missouri 2-0-1; Tennessee 6-7-2; South Carolina 0-0; Texas A&M 3-3; Vanderbilt 1-0. UCLA will return the game against LSU in Baton Rouge, La. on Sept. 21, 2024. Since 2000, UCLA has posted a 5-1 record versus SEC teams with the loss coming in an overtime decision in College Station, Texas -- 2017 W vs. Texas A&M; 2016 L at Texas A&M; 2009 W at Tennessee; 2008 W vs. Tennessee; 2001 W at Alabama; 2000 W vs. Alabama.

THE WATCHLIST
• New transfers played key roles in the win over Hawaii -- RB Zach Charbonnet (Michigan) ran for 106 yards on six carries while scoring TDs on runs of 21, 47 and 21 yards; Ale Kaho (Alabama) blocked a punt which was recovered for a TD; CB Cameron Johnson (20 starts at North Texas over the past two seasons) made his first start for UCLA; Kam Brown (four starts last season at Texas A&M) started at WR; Jordan Genmark Heath (one career start at Notre Dame) made his first start for the Bruins.
• Fast start: UCLA limited Hawai'i to nine plays and two yards on its first three possessions while jumping out to a 17-0 first-quarter lead.
• The Bruins have gone on to play in a bowl game in each of the last six seasons in which they have earned a win in the first game of that season: 2017 (Cactus Bowl / opening win over Texas A&M); 2015 (Foster Farms Bowl / opening win over Virginia); 2014 (Alamo Bowl - opening win over Virginia); 2013 (Sun Bowl - opening win over Rice); 2012 (Holiday Bowl - opening win over Nevada); 2009 (Eagle Bank Bowl - opening win over San Diego State).
• UCLA is +17 turnovers in wins and -27 in losses under Coach Kelly ... In its four 2020 losses, UCLA committed 12 of its 13 turnovers on the season. It turned the ball over four times at Colorado, four times at Oregon, three times vs. USC and once vs. Stanford.
•Dorian Thompson-Robinson (5,262 yds) needs 37 passing yards to move past Troy Aikman (5,298) and into seventh on the all-time school career list ... With two more TD passes, Thompson-Robinson (41) will move past Cory Paus (42) and slide into sixth on that all-time school list.
• UCLA played five true freshmen in the opener against Hawai'i. The Bruins used 21 true freshmen in 2018 to set a new school record. The old mark was 18 in 2013 ... True freshmen played in recent seasons: 2020: 11, 2019: 9, 2018: 21, 2017: 8, 2016: 11, 2015: 10.
• Mitchell Agude has now been credited with at least 0.5 TFL in each of his UCLA games ... He led the team with 9.0 tackles for loss in 2020 and was the only Bruin to have at least 0.5 TFL in each of the seven games in 2020 ... He registered a season-high 3.5 TFLs vs. Oregon ... Agude was also credited with the forced fumble which was returned for a TD at Oregon and two forced fumbles vs. Arizona ... He rated 10th nationally in forced fumbles (0.43 per game) in 2020 and opened 2021 with two more forced fumbles against Hawai'i.
• Defensive Improvement -- UCLA limited Hawaii to 26 rushing yards (1.2 per rush) in the opener, the fewest by an opponent since BYU totaled 23 in a 2016 game ... Hawai'i also generated just 3.6 yards per play overall...Rushing yards per game allowed 2017: 287.4 / 2018: 199.4/ 2019: 145.5 / 2020: 135.7; average Yards per rush allowed 2017: 5.8 / 2018: 4.6 / 2019: 4.3 / 2020: 3.6; average yards allowed per play 2017: 6.3 / 2018: 6.0 / 2019: 6.7 / 2020: 5.4.
• Ale Kaho was credited with a punt block which was recovered for a Bruin touchdown against Hawai'i. The transfer from Alabama had a punt deflection in action last season and three punt blocks during 2019 for the Crimson Tide.
• UCLA has rushed for at least 200 yards in five of the last seven contests ... Last year's average rushing offense per game of 230.6 yards per game rated 12th in NCAA/second in Pac-12 ... The Bruins surpassed the 200-yards-rushing-per-game average milestone for a season for only the fourth time since 1990 -- 2014-209.5, 1995-212.5 and 1991-200.1.
• Zach Charbonnet rushed for 106 yards and three scores on six first-half carries in his Bruin debut against Hawai'i ... The Michigan transfer scored 11 touchdowns as a true freshman while at Michigan in 2019 and posted two 100-yard games (vs. Army, Illinois) ... He also scored three rushing touchdowns in a 2019 contest against Army ... Last season at UM, he had a 70-yard run for a score against Minnesota.