The Minnesota Golden Gophers will look to improve their record to above .500 on Saturday evening in Pasadena when they take on the struggling UCLA Bruins. Over the course of the week, Gophers Nation previewed this week's matchup and now we're ready to make our official prediction for the game.
With just a few hours till kickoff, Minnesota is a 3.5-point favorite and the over/under is set at 40-points.
After incorrectly predicting Minnesota to lose last week to USC, Gophers Nation is predicting a Minnesota victory on Saturday night against UCLA.
Let's get into why.
These two programs are going two widely different directions at this juncture. Despite losing two of their last three, Minnesota comes into Saturday as a very confident program after upsetting USC last weekend at Huntington Bank Stadium. The confidence began to build in the second half of the Gophers loss to Michigan two weeks ago and carried over into the USC game. Perhaps P.J. Fleck once again gave his players a 'confidence shot' this week as they prepared for the Bruins.
UCLA, on the other hand? They're losers of four straight and outside of a quality quarterback performance last weekend, there's not much to take away from those games that would instill confidence in the Bruins heading into this weekend. The defense is better than one would think but still isn't overly strong while the offense is arguably the worst Power Four offense in the country.
The UCLA defense is very good at stopping the run this season so it will be interesting to see how the Gophers deploy Drius Taylor on Saturday night. That being said, even if the Gophers can't run the ball at a consistent rate, their passing attack has shown plenty of promise this season in my opinion that will be enough to make enough of a difference on Saturday night. Max Brosmer has been efficient throughout the course of the season and going up against a weak UCLA secondary, I see no reason that that will be any different Saturday night.
Defensively, the Gophers defense should feast against the Bruins. It will present an intriguing matchup between a rather weak Minnesota run defense this year versus an even weaker UCLA rushing attack that is averaging just 2.7 yards per carry this season. Their passing attack can move the ball at times but is widely inconsistent and there's still major questions of who will be leading the Bruins at the quarterback position. Will it be veteran Ethan Garbers or redshirt sophomore Justyn Martin who got his first career start last week?
No matter who starts, the Gophers defense has a significant advantage over UCLA's offense.
As long as Minnesota plays a relatively smart, mistake free game game, they should be able to win this game comfortably.
FINAL SCORE PREDICTION: Minnesota 31 - UCLA 17
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