The UCLA Bruins return home Saturday night, looking to erase the bad taste of last week's loss in Houston. At the Rose Bowl Saturday night, the Bruins should get back on track, facing the San Jose State Spartans. The Bruins are 21-point favorites against the Spartans, who were guaranteed $425,000 for their trip to Pasadena, per Chris Foster of the LA Times.
Junior running back Johnathan Franklin is always a key to the Bruins offense and had 128 yards on just 16 carries in last week's loss at Houston. Franklin has eight career games of 100 or more rushing yards, and six of those have come at home. At the Rose Bowl in his career, Franklin has rushed for 999 yards on 178 carries with 10 touchdowns in 12 home games. His 5.61 average yards per rush is a full yard more than his average everywhere else.
The UCLA defense, which allowed 38 points and 469 yards to the Houston Cougars in Week 1 figures to improve this week against the Spartans. San Jose State averaged just 79 rushing yards in their 1-12 season in 2010, and had just 27 yards on the ground in their 57-3 drubbing by Stanford last week. Senior safety Tony Dye, who led the Bruins last week with 10 tackles, said in his weekly report, "I just want to apologize for that first half [in Houston]. It won't happen again."
Prediction: UCLA 38, San Jose State 14
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