{"id":18692,"date":"2011-10-17T11:55:50","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T16:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18692"},"modified":"2011-10-17T11:55:50","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T16:55:50","slug":"college-football-picks-week-8-ucla-bruins-vs-arizona-wildcats-pac-12-football-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-football-picks-week-8-ucla-bruins-vs-arizona-wildcats-pac-12-football-preview-18692\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Picks Week 8: UCLA Bruins vs. Arizona Wildcats, Pac-12 Football Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCLA Bruins at Arizona Wildcats
\nThursday, 10\/20\/11, 9:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Arizona -3.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Arizona -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 N\/A
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 N\/A
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Arizona Wildcats will try and end a five-game losing streak after the dismissal of Mike Stoops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UCLA travels to Tucson to take on a program that has lost five consecutive games, as it comes off a bye week and tries to break a string of alternating wins and losses in the first six contests.\u00a0 The Bruins are coming off a 28-25 win over the Washington State Cougars as four-point home favorites on Oct. 8, but have dropped the statistical battle in four consecutive games.\u00a0 UCLA is ranked 30th nationally in rushing offense, averaging 194.5 yards per game, while the offensive line has allowed 0.67 sacks per contest, which is tied for 11th nationally.\u00a0 UCLA is 1-5 ATS on the year and 11-19 ATS over the last two-plus campaigns.<\/p>\n

The Bruins have had at least one rushing touchdown in each of the last 12 games, while being led by junior running back Johnathan Franklin, who has 509 rushing yards, averaging 6.6 yards per carry.\u00a0 Quarterback Kevin Prince has returned to the starting role due to Richard Brehaut out till the middle of November with a leg injury.\u00a0 UCLA hasn\u2019t had much success in this series since 2004, posting a 2-5 mark and dropping four consecutive meetings.<\/p>\n

Arizona will be playing its first game since the dismissal of head coach Mike Stoops, which actually may plan against the program in this matchup.\u00a0 He played a large part in holding Thursday\u2019s opponent to under 300 yards in the last four games in the series.\u00a0 Stoops finished his career in the desert with a 41-50 record, but dropped 10 consecutive games against lined competition.\u00a0 \u201cI was concerned about the direction of the program,\u201d commented Wildcats athletic director Greg Byrne.\u00a0 \u201cI felt it needed to be addressed.\u201d\u00a0 Arizona completed its first half of the season with a 1-5 record, posting a 2-4 ATS record in the process.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats are led by quarterback Nick Foles, who has thrown for the second-most yards of any quarterback nationally, as the team has averaged 33 points per game in the last three contests.\u00a0 Arizona will need to try and build some momentum at the start, getting outscored by a 55-17 margin this season.\u00a0 The Wildcats have allowed at least 27 first-half points in each of the past three games, while allowing 196 rushing yards and 291.7 passing yards.\u00a0 On the injury front, star wide receiver Juron Criner suffered a mild knee sprain in the first quarter at Oregon State, but early indications suggest that he will be on the field after the bye.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Wildcats due to being 4-0 ATS in the last four meetings, while the Bruins are 0-6 ATS following a bye week.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college football handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UCLA Bruins at Arizona Wildcats Thursday, 10\/20\/11, 9:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Arizona -3.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Arizona -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 N\/A Current Total:\u00a0 N\/A Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker UCLA travels to Tucson to take on a program that has lost five consecutive games, as it comes off a bye week and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[578,3318,3586,3584,11],"class_list":["post-18692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-arizona-wildcats","tag-johnathan-franklin","tag-mike-stoops","tag-nick-foles","tag-ucla-bruins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18693,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18692\/revisions\/18693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}