GAME ONE: UCLA at Cincinnati
Venue: Nippert Stadium (40,000)
Kickoff Time: 4 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. ET
Television: ESPN (Adam Amin, Matt Hasselback, Molly McGrath, Pat McAfee)
Radio (UCLA Sports Network from IMG College): AM 1150 Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Matt Stevens (analyst), Wayne Cook (sideline)
Sirius/XM internet Ch. 206/197/959
UCLA (0-0) will open the 2019 season by traveling to play at Cincinnati (0-0) on Thursday, August 29 at Nippert Stadium at 4:00 p.m. PT. The game will be televised by ESPN. The Bruin IMG Radio Network will broadcast the contest, which will also be aired over Sirius/XM, uclabruins.com and tunein.com and the TuneIn App.
This will be the Bruins' earliest season-opener ever --- UCLA has played four previous games in August (Aug. 30, 2014 - UCLA 28, at Virginia 20; Aug. 31, 2013 - UCLA 58, Nevada 20; Aug. 30, 2012 - UCLA 49, at Rice 24; Aug. 30, 1997 - UCLA 34, at Washington State 37). It will be the second overall meeting with Cincinnati. The Bearcats, who went 11-2 in 2018, won last year's season-opener in the Rose Bowl 26-17.
The Bruins are 65-30-5 all-time in season-openers. It will be the first road opener since the 2016 campaign when UCLA dropped an overtime decision at Texas A&M to kick off that season. It is the first game in the state of Ohio for the Bruins since a 1999 date at Ohio State.
This will be UCLA's second meeting with Cincinnati and the first series game played in Ohio. UCLA is 7-9-0 all-time vs. teams in the current American Athletic Conference -- Memphis (1-1), Navy (0-0), SMU (1-4), Tulane (0-0), Houston (4-3), Tulsa (0-0), South Florida (0-0), Cincinnati (0-1), Central Florida (0-0), East Carolina (0-0), Temple (1-0).
THE WATCHLIST
• UCLA generated over 400 yards of total offense in 6 of the last 8 games of the 2018 season...The Bruins averaged 432.9 yards of total offense in the final 8 games, after averaging 312.0 yards per outing in first four contests of season ... UCLA compiled a season-high 528 yards of offense against Stanford in the last game of the season, including a season-best 466 passing yards ... UCLA racked up 479 yards of total offense, including a season-best 313 rushing yards, vs. USC in game 11...UCLA's team rushing average was 154.8 per game in 2018, up from 113.4 per 2017 game.
• RB Joshua Kelley, a transfer from UC Davis, rushed for a touchdown in each of the last 8 games of the 2018 season - the last Bruin to tally a rushing TD in more consecutive contests was Skip Hicks who had rushing TDs in 14 straight games over two seasons [last 8 in 1996 and first 6 in 1997]) ... Kelley finished with 1,243 yards rushing in 2018 which is 10th on the Bruin single-season list -- Paul Perkins was the last Bruin 1,000-yard rusher (1,343 in 2015)... Kelley had six 100-yard rushing games in 2018, the most since Perkins had a like number in 2014...He ran for a series best 289 yards against the Trojans and in the fourth quarter alone vs. USC, Kelley ran 12 times for 104 yards ... Kelley produced a career-high six receptions in the game at Oregon, to mark the fifth time he grabbed at least three passes in a game in '18 ... Kelley ranked third in the P12 in all-purpose yards per game (130.5) ... Kelley ranked 9th in NCAA in 2018 in rushing yards per game, the first top-10 Bruin since Johnathan Franklin ranked 9th in 2012 and just the third Bruin since 1995 to rate in the NCAA top-10 in the category.
• UCLA played 21 true freshmen in the 2018 season to set a new school record - the old mark was 18 in 2013...True freshmen played in recent seasons: 2018: 21, 2017: 8, 2016: 11, 2015: 10, 2014: 9, 2013: 18, 2012:12 --- 2018 true freshman who saw action: 2 RB/5 WR/3 OL/1 QB/1 TE///3 DL, 4 DB, 2 LB ... RB Kazmeir Allen, RB Martell Irby, QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, WR Kyle Philips, OL Christaphany Murray, WR Chase Cota, DL Atonio Mafi, DL Tyler Manoa, DB Stephan Blaylock, DB Rayshad Williams, DL Otito Ogbonnia and DB Elisha Guidry saw action vs. Cincinnati ... WR Michael Ezeike at Oklahoma ... WR Delon Hurt and LB Bo Calvert vs. Fresno State ... LB Elijah Wade saw his first action at Colorado ... DB Alex Johnson saw action at Oregon ... WR Greg Dulcich, TE David Priebe and OL Alec Anderson played at ASU ... OL Jon Gaines saw his initial action vs. Stanford.
• UCLA was plus-eight in turnovers in its three wins (5 Cal turnovers-0 UCLA turnovers///3 Arizona TOs-1 UCLA TO///2 USC TOs-UCLA 1 TO) ... UCLA was -7 in turnover margin in losses (Oppt. 8, UCLA 15 turnovers) ... Bruins were 6th in turnover margin in the Pac-12 (0.08) ...The five turnovers forced at Cal equaled the most in a game since 2013 when UCLA forced 6 takeaways at Utah.
• WR Theo Howard has caught a pass in each of his last 28 straight games (WR Craig Bragg ['01-04] owns the school record with a catch in 39 straight games). With 119 catches, Howard moved up to tied for 16th on the school career receptions list vs. USC ... Against Utah, he became the 25th 100-catch receiver in UCLA history...He hauled in a season-best total of nine catches vs. UW and went over 1,000-yards for his career against Arizona.
• Defensive Improvement -- Rushing Yards per Game allowed 2017: 287.4 / 2018: 199.4; Average Yards per rush allowed 2017: 5.8 / 2018: 4.6; Average yards allowed per play 2017: 6.26 / 2018: 5.99.
• UCLA coverted 49 of its last 119 third down attempts (41%) in the last 8 games (including a season-best 57% vs. UW) ... In the first four contests, the Bruins converted 17 of 56 third down attempts (30%).
• The Bruin defense held USC without a touchdown in the second half, the first time a Bruin D accomplished that since Game 7 of 2017 vs. Oregon.
• C Boss Tagaloa, who had started 8 games on the defensive line, made his first career start on offense at center in game 4 at Colorado and went on to start the last 9 (after sitting out first 3 games) games of 2018 -- he helped produce six 100-yard games by Joshua Kelley, including serving as blocker for 1,216 of his season total of 1,243 yards.