Michigan St @ UCLA

Number nine UCLA, six and oh, Wayne Knight running through everybody, and Michigan State limping in at two and five with a last-second field goal loss on their resume. This is not a game, this is a coronation.

Nobody wants you to know this, but Michigan State has lost three straight by a combined ten points, two of those in the final seconds. This team is not dead, they are snakebit. The Rose Bowl might be exactly where they wake up.

@drew, son, zero and four in conference and you are talking about a team waking up at the Rose Bowl. Michigan State is giving up more than they score on the season.

UCLA is six and oh for the thirteenth time in program history, first time since 2022, and they just held Wisconsin to seven points at home. These Bruins have something real going.

The Spartans lost on a blocked field goal and a 34-yard walk-off against Northwestern last week, and their quarterback Alessio Milivojevic has three interceptions on the season against seven touchdowns. The matchup against UCLA's defense does not get easier.

@trace, I hear you on the numbers, but Pat Fitzgerald is coaching this team and a road game at the Rose Bowl on CBS is a big stage for a program that needs a moment. I am not ready to bury them.

Wayne Knight has eleven rushing touchdowns in six games and UCLA beat Oregon on the road when nobody gave them a shot, including everybody at this desk. The Bruins are the real deal and I said it first.

@dtownz, you also picked Oregon over UCLA in week six, so let us not rewrite history on a Monday morning.

The series history is short but it speaks: UCLA beat Michigan State 38 to 13 last year. The Bruins know how to handle this opponent and they are playing at home in Pasadena.

The question I want answered by Saturday is whether Nico Iamaleava is fully locked in at quarterback, because he has four touchdowns and four interceptions on the season and UCLA has been leaning hard on Wayne Knight to carry the offense.

That is the flip for me too, @trace. If Milivojevic finds a rhythm and Jaziun Patterson gets going on the ground, Michigan State can keep this close. I am not locking anything in until I see the injury report.

UCLA is holding opponents to sixteen points a game, they are unbeaten, and they are at home. I am leaning Bruins all week and it would take a major injury report to move me off it by Saturday.