By the end of their trip to Seattle, UCLA players might feel like playing Nirvana on their headphones while sipping lattes with a bear foam design on top.
Everywhere they’ve gone this season, the Bruins have made themselves at home. There’s no doubt they’ve played their best football on the road. A team with a sub-.500 record has gone 3-2 in away games, with the losses coming against No. 4 Penn State and No. 22 Louisiana State.
They’ll need to be in top form again Friday evening at Husky Stadium.
Washington has won 19 consecutive home games — the longest home win streak in modern school history — and will have a “Blackout” theme on the night it honors its seniors, a handful of whom have played for four head coaches going back to Chris Petersen.
Having dropped all five road games this season, the Huskies have been equally dominant at home, their 5-0 record including victories over nationally ranked Michigan and the football program formerly known as USC.
“It’s just rocking, just the stadium that the fans take pride in,” UCLA coach DeShaun Foster said of Washington’s home stadium. “You know, it’s going to be loud, it’s going to be at night, it might be cold. So, you know, just a little bit of I think that they just play into it, kind of like the Seahawks. So, it’s a big challenge for us, but we’ve played in some hostile environments this whole season, so it shouldn’t be anything that we’re not prepared for.”
Here are five things to watch when the Bruins (4-5 overall, 3-4 Big Ten) face the Huskies (5-5, 3-4) at 6 p.m. PST in a game televised by Fox:
Going ‘home’ again
Ethan Garbers could have been among the seniors honored Friday.
The Orange County native spent his first college season at Washington before transferring to play much closer to home. The quarterback never appeared in a game with the Huskies but did win the Bob Jarvis offensive scout squad most valuable player award.
Facing his old team could provide a sliver of extra motivation for a player who already seems like a man on a mission.
“This one, you know, might be just a little more sweeter for him,” UCLA slot receiver Logan Loya said. “Obviously, the place that he came from. I mean, I get that, so I think there should be a little chip on your shoulder when it comes to this type of stuff.”
Just like the rest of his teammates, Garbers has played his best on the road. He’s thrown for nine touchdowns and three interceptions on the road this season as opposed to three touchdowns and eight interceptions at home.
In case anyone needed a reminder, UCLA is on the road this week.
Run stoppers
UCLA just shut down one of the nation’s top running backs in Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, who was held to 49 yards in 18 carries. So why should things be any different against Washington’s Jonah Coleman?
Stylistically, the 5-foot-9, 229-pound Coleman might be more powerful than Johnson. He’s piled up 32 rushing plays of 10 yards or longer and often requires multiple defenders to bring him down.
“Jonah’s gonna get in there,” Foster said. “If he doesn’t see something, he’s gonna try to bounce it. It’s another opportunity against a good back, so we’re excited for it.”
UCLA’s run defense is allowing just 98.1 yards per game, ranking No. 7 in the country.
Making a run for it
UCLA could have broken out a new rallying cry this week: “We’re not No. 133!”
The Bruins no longer rank last in the nation in rushing yardage per game after a breakthrough against Iowa. T.J. Harden’s 125 rushing yards were more than his team had compiled in any previous game this season. Keegan Jones added 38 rushing yards and Jalen Berger 30 in helping their team compile a season-high 211 yards on the ground.
Foster attributed the success to continued improvement from his offensive line and some big runs before halftime.
“When you’re successful early in the run game, it makes you more confident to call it the whole game,” Foster said, “so I think that played more into it.”
Sanctions persist
One thing has not been fixed amid UCLA’s three-game winning streak: the team’s tendency to hurt itself with penalties.
The Bruins committed nine penalties against Iowa, costing them 84 yards and at least four points after a penalty on a Hawkeyes field-goal attempt gave them a first down leading to a touchdown. That continued a trend in which UCLA ranks last in the Big Ten with 73 penalties for 645 yards.
“It’s still a pillar of ours and we have to hang our hat on it,” Foster said. “So, you know, we just finished doing up-downs for each penalty that we have. So, we’re making sure that that’s a focus and everybody understands that, and I think eventually we’re gonna come out of it penalty-less, or whatever word I’m trying to say.”
His point made, Foster could not help himself from taking a shot at the referees.
“I think it was 11 to one?” Foster said, slightly off considering his team committed nine penalties to Iowa’s two. “Penalties, we had 11 and they had one?”
Shock to the system?
Any trick plays that Washington runs should not come as a surprise.
UCLA has seen much of Huskies coach Jedd Fisch’s arsenal going back to his time as a Bruins offensive coordinator under coach Jim Mora. Fisch even tried a pass to offensive tackle Kolton Miller (it fell incomplete).
“You just have to know that there’s something coming,” Foster said. “So, you just have to know that there’s an opportunity for there to be some sort of trick play in there.”