UCLA (1-1) has never made the cross-country trek from the west coast to the bayou to play football in Tiger Stadium. The Bruin program does so on Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff against No. 16 LSU (2-1).
UCLA won the only meeting between the Tigers and Bruins to kick off the 2021 season in the Rose Bowl. A 38-27 loss put Ed Orgeron's No. 16-ranked squad behind the eight ball and was one of the factors in his firing and Brian Kelly's hiring.
Kelly's Tigers are coming off a 36-33 victory on the road at South Carolina, overcoming a 17-0 second-quarter deficit. The story is not as rosy for the Bruins, who got throttled by Indiana in the Rose Bowl, 42-13.
Winning a game like that and under those circumstances can help lead to bigger and better things for the Tigers.
"You learn that this group understands that there's so much more to this game than between the lines, it's between the ears as well. When you have a resilient group like that, you wanna coach harder, you wanna do more for them and eliminate those mistakes," he said.
"I think what's important is from an entire team standpoint, to win games like that you have to understand habits have a lot to do with it. Winning's a habit and losing's a habit. If you have losing habits, you can't win those games. We have the right habits, now we have to be able to clean up the things technically and they really come down to three things."
The early odds came out with LSU a 17.5-point favorite, via SportsLine, but they quickly jumped to 23 points. As of Monday afternoon, the over/under had not budged from where it opened at 56.5 points.
From an injury perspective, Kelly will not have to release a full injury report like he did for the South Carolina game, because that mandate applies only to SEC games. UCLA had 13 players listed as out for the loss to Indiana. LSU had eight listed out on Saturday, with one probable in Zy Alexander, who played, and one questionable in West Weeks, who did not dress.
Like always in South Louisiana, the weather is subject to change ten times between now and Saturday, but the early outlook calls for a hot and sunny afternoon in Baton Rouge for kickoff with temperatures in the low 90s and very little chance of rain.
ABC will televise the action and the game will be streamed on FuboTV and ESPN+, which is accessible via the ESPN app.
For those not able to watch or stream the game, they can listen to the LSU Sports Radio Network broadcast for free on the LSU Sports Mobile App, on a computer at LSUsports.net/live, on the flagship radio station Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge, and on all radio network affiliates. The Voice of the Tigers, Chris Blair, and Jacob Hester will be on the call, along with Gordy Rush on the sideline.