The UCLA Bruins are coming off back-to-back losses to the Arizona Wildcats and a 3-7 Arizona State team at home. The Bruins have suffered injuries to their various quarterbacks this season. Starter Ethan Garbers appears to be healthy enough to play, however, against USC.
In seven games this season, Garbers has completed 68.1% of his passes, has 786 passing yards, and has a touchdown-interception ratio of 6 to 3 with a 153 rating.
Garbers has been inconsistent for Chip Kelly and the Bruins, but has been playing the best out of all five UCLA quarterbacks who have played this year.
Chip Kelly is now on the hot seat. The rivalry versus USC is a must-win game for him, and it might not even be enough to save his job on Saturday.
Asked if there was any concern that consecutive losses would snowball into a bigger problem, Kelly said the only thing on his mind right now is USC.
“I’m concerned with getting our team ready to play against a really good football team that we played in a shootout with last year,” he said. “We are concerned with who we are playing. They have the returning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. They can score a lot of points. We’ve got to be prepared for that.”
“Ethan’s done everything well since he’s been here,” Kelly said. “At the beginning of the week, Ethan got a lot more reps in practice because Dante was banged up. So, over the course of the week, we decided we were gonna go with Ethan.”
USC and UCLA play just after 12:30 p.m. Pacific time on ABC. It will be a showcase television window for the battle of L.A.
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