UCLA Football: Bruins Must Get Tougher to Ultimately Compete with Pac-12 Elite

PASADENA, Calif. — Stanford spoiled No. 8 UCLA’s hope of a Pac-12 South title and berth in the conference championship game Friday at the Rose Bowl, 31-10.

The thorn in head coach Jim Mora’s side once again came from the Cardinal—and more specifically, their physical brand of football.

“This is the worst [Stanford] has beaten us in the four games we played them [since Mora became head coach in 2012],” he said. “They are just big and physical.”

Stanford dominated on both lines, on defense collapsing UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley’s pocket from virtually the moment he took several snaps, resulting in five sacks.

On offense, Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan's sack-free afternoon set the tone. He delivered the ball to the skill-position players on time, which allowed them to pick up yards after the catch.

Putting together perhaps his best individual performance in three years as Stanford’s starting quarterback, Hogan went 16-of-19 passing for 234 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Cardinal to their fourth win over the Bruins in the last three seasons.

The win was also Stanford’s seventh straight in the series, dating back to 2009. That season was the first in which the Cardinal began to establish themselves among the conference’s elite, going on to reach top-tier bowls from 2010 through 2013.

This year’s Stanford team finishes just 7-5, but UCLA linebacker Myles Jack said the Cardinal were much better than their record. More importantly for the Bruins, Jack added that Stanford is a benchmark UCLA is trying to reach.

“Be one of the Oregons and Stanfords, that was kind of our motto,” he said. “We figured this year was the year, but I guess not.”

Jack will be among the returning players in 2015, leading UCLA in its pursuit of reaching the Pac-12’s upper echelon. He should assume a leadership role linebacker partner Eric Kendricks vacates as one of the program’s departing seniors.

Kendricks broke UCLA’s career tackles record of 468, racking up a team-high 11 on the afternoon. Jack was right behind him with 10.

Jack’s ability to swarm to the football and just as importantly bring down the ball-carrier sets the kind of tone the Bruins must follow in the future to be true title contenders. Friday, that was lacking from other spots on the defense.

“We’ve got to do a better job all around, when it comes to rushing, when it comes to tackling, when it comes to everything,” defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said.

Time of possession is an overrated statistic—except when it’s not. And Friday’s contest was an example of the latter, as noted by Dan Greenspan of The Associated Press:

Complementing Hogan’s proficient passing was a methodical run game, which exploited UCLA’s ineffective tackling to take the air out of the ball.

Stanford had possession for 37 minutes, 49 seconds to UCLA’s 22 minutes, 11 seconds, thanks largely to 202 rushing yards.

“When their running game is a viable threat at all times…they don’t mind running on third down-and-7,” Ulbrich said.

UCLA’s rush defense will look considerably different next season without Kendricks, whom Ulbrich called “the heart and soul” of the program.

And Kendricks isn’t the only notable Bruin who may have gone out winless against Stanford.

Friday would seemingly mark the end of Hundley’s UCLA career. A redshirt junior who finished his undergraduate degree, Hundley was recognized as part of the pregame senior-day ceremony.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

With Hundley’s exit, Mora was already faced with beginning a new era in the 2015 campaign. The impending quarterback battle between Hundley’s understudy, Asiantii Woulard, and highly touted prospect Josh Rosen, should dominate offseason headlines in Westwood, California.

But the strides UCLA takes toward becoming a more physical team are perhaps most important for the program's future.

“I thought we closed the gap,” Mora said. “But we still have work to do. We will continue to work hard on getting bigger and faster and stronger and more physical [and] recruiting the type of student-athletes we think can help us win those types of games.”

Such was the case for Oregon, which suffered losses to Stanford in 2012 and 2013 akin to that which UCLA sustained Friday. The Ducks refocused on bulking up last offseason and saw results, blowing out the Cardinal in the rematch earlier this month.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise cited. Statistics courtesy of the UCLA athletic department.