Colorado vs. UCLA Spread Prediction
Chip Kelly only lost seven games in four seasons while the head coach at Oregon. He’s already on the verge of losing his fourth game while manning the ship at UCLA. Can the Bruins pull off the upset tonight when they visit Colorado at 9:00 p.m. ET or will this inexperienced UCLA team get thumped again?
Game Snapshot
107 UCLA Bruins at 108 Colorado Buffaloes
9:00 p.m. ET, Friday, September 28, 2018
Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Buffaloes are 9.5-point favorites to beat the Bruins. The total, meanwhile, sits at 60.5 points. As of this writing, 67% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Buffaloes.
UCLA Bruins
“One of the things about tempo is, it thrives on completions and first downs where you can keep the same team in the game so you cannot allow the defense to substitute and you wear down that defense,” former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said. “Well, right now they’re not as efficient as they’d like to be, so they’re not getting to the point where tempo has been a factor in most of the games.”
Colorado Buffaloes
“We watch different games during the season, parts of games and say, ‘Hey this is what we’re talking about; here’s how we explain (what to do),'” Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre said while making observations about the Stanford-Oregon game. “That young man (Oregon running back CJ Verdell) was running really hard, and it’s just very unfortunate that he fumbled the ball. He’s a really good player. He’ll learn form that.”
Betting Trends
UCLA
The Bruins are 1-4 against the spread in the last five meetings with the Buffaloes, although the underdog is a perfect 5-0 against the number in the last five meetings between these schools. The road team also covered in five of the last six meetings.
Colorado
The Buffs are 1-5-1 against the spread in their last seven home games.
Prediction
This is far from what we’re used to when it comes to a Kelly-led offense. UCLA ranks 101st in the nation in passing offense at 189 yards per game. The Bruins are also 103rd nationally in rushing offense (130.7 yards per game), are No. 118 in total offense (319.7 yards per game) and No. 120 in scoring offense (17.3 points per game). Meanwhile, Colorado is coming off its bye, is getting healthy (especially in the secondary), and is unbeaten on the year. Despite the line movement indicating sharp action on the Bruins, I’m not touching UCLA until it shows signs of life offensively.
College Football Prediction: Colorado Buffaloes -9.5