BRIDGE PRE-SSN 2026

Gents,

Hope the things are going well for ya .. getting up to speed on more than a few items but got a couple ideas brewin early on .. 

Always good to see ya BRIDGE! Hope all is well brother!

SSN WINS

UCLA OVER 5.5 -144 (FAN)

Team is coming off of rock bottom and boiiiii were they last year gettin blown to smithereens by Utah before looking fairy inept to UNLV and hitting rock bottom in a BLOWOUT LOSS at home to New Mexico who had an RSW of 1.5 going into last year .. we didn't like their coach at all Desean Foster and they had enough of him in Westwood by then .. didn't sniff a win until a close loss @NU and by then their in-ssn win total was around 1.5 and I'd imagine juiced to the under before a MIRCALE TURN beating Penn State then gathering themselves to slaughter Mich State on the road with a very close but solid win vs a scrappy enough MD team at home to win 3 games ... No wins beyond that but had a close loss vs Nebraska at home and blowouts vs Indy, Wash, OSU and USC after that .. BUT this was a MASSIVE turn and door wide open to build upward into the off season ..

The biggest key is bringing in proven winner Bob Chesney from JMU along with his staff and expect the program to head in the right direction after p!ssing into the wind for years with Foster .. We can trust his OC and OL coach that have been with him most of his rise up from Holy Cross and his DC comes along too he was DB's coach who was with coach Fickle and Marcus Freeman from the start of Cincy's rise up and ultimately their run to the 4-team playoffs as a G5 team .. DB's were so critical and put a few big names like "Sauce" Gardner in the pros .. should be noted that after Cignetti left JMU and took all the best JMU players with him that Chesney still managed a 9 win season the next year and had his own playoff run last year .. Can he turn UCLA around in one year idk but if he's anything like his predecessor they won't be looking to take a mulligan year they'll be looking for a splash landing .. 

ROSTER

The real glaring potential problem area is on the DL with top 7 guys grad or xferring out .. they need young guys to step up but have 6 coming in with good experience and JMU bookend DE's Sahir West and Gobaira bring 14 sacks and 54 stops from last year so at least some solid building blocks .. the bigger concern with the number of interior DL's and with the size .. 

QB with Nico returning is great I really think putting him with the right coaches can turn things around .. at this pt he should shed the old attitude and accept being an actual leader on team with big potential .. the real key is the room is stacked with potential with Nico's brother Madden and Pierce Clarkson and another RS Soph and if Nico gets injured we still should have some capable outs .. 

Rest of the roster looks decent enough with retention and experienced xfers .. RB, DB look like strengths .. LB and WR looks like it has some decent potential and could be strengths .. OL and TE like so many other teams are just a wait and see but really only TE is a concern in terms of actual numbers .. BIG KEY I like is the kicker returns 16/20 and 2/4 from 50+ hit all his PAT's .. I'd expect him to win to put 1-2 games in the W column for us next year if he has similar stats again .. 

UCLA CONT'D .. 

GOALS / SCHEDULE

The goals of this team should very much align with our wager in a couple ways.. Regardless of whether players actually play in the bowl, 'making a bowl' is always a big thing in season and UCLA coming off the horrible couple years this feels like a major goal for them .. but bigger yet we have Bob Chesney with a 132-52 record as HC over 16 years and 15 winning seasons .. only losing season was first year at Holy Cross 6-6 reg ssn playoff loss made them 6-7 broke the tie .. Also 15 winning seasons in Conf with first year at JMU 4-4 and given those circumstances we can applaud that effort .. still went 9-4 on the season beating UNC 70-50 in the process .. He wins .. google him .. 

I I'd mark UCLA down for 9 winnable with 2 likely >TD Fav vs SDSU and Nevada should be a free square .. also like Nev in week 9 which gives some reprieve during their 8 game stretch the latter part of the ssn .. Bruins otherwise have 4 winnable conf games are at home vs Purdue, Wisco, Mich State and ILL with winnable road gms @MD, @Minny and @Cal in the opener .. Cal's expected to be a tough team this yr with a proven dude QB and they are always tough in their first big noncon .. the smart move maybe to wait till after that game as I'd expect Cal to win this one .. but if Bru can get by them they might be 4-0 heading into their bye week and still have 4 more winnable games at home after the bye and we'd expect this team to become stronger as the season goes along .. the likely losses are pretty apparent. I'd call @Oregon to be a loss off their bye week .. @Michigan looks tough before crosstown showdown vs USC in the finale in the rose bowl .. but by seasons end I'd expect UCLA to be at least a decently formidable team capable of pulling an upset vs USC assuming the Trojans don't become an unstoppable force this year .. But even the @Michigan spot while daunting for the Bru Crew its a potential DOOZIE of a spot for the M's in their 6th str conf game off @Oregon with @OSU on deck .. I'd also note the opponent spots on their winnable games don't look particularly helpful and UCLA might be able to pick a few easy home wins up .. 

All told I see it tough for UCLA to manage only 5 or fewer wins this year based on how the schedule is constructed and the decent retention and very strong portal class and new coach .. they have many ways to get to 6 wins and very possible this team turns from looking like an upstart to a dangerous bunch at some point and at least has a shot to pull a big upset late in the year .. GOOD LUCK!!