First look: No. 18 UCLA at No. 15 Stanford

UCLA's 23-20 win over Stanford in 2008 remains its most recent victory against the Cardinal. The Bruins have since lost seven straight. (Keith Birmingham/Staff)

UCLA’s 23-20 win over Stanford in 2008 remains its most recent victory against the Cardinal. The Bruins have since lost seven straight. (Keith Birmingham/Staff)

No. 18 UCLA Bruins (4-1, 1-1) at No. 15 Stanford Cardinal (4-1, 3-0)
Kickoff:
Thursday, Oct. 15, 7:30 p.m., Stanford Stadium
TV: ESPN (Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack, Kaylee Hartung)
Radio: AM 570 (Bill Roth, Matt Stevens, Wayne Cook)

Scouting report: Stanford isn’t quite as stingy as it was on defense a year ago, falling from No. 2 in the country in yards allowed per play (4.21) to No. 32 (4.78). However, it has improved its offense dramatically, going from 5.89 yards per play to 6.72. That’s vaulted the Cardinal from 50th in the FBS to 15th. … Stanford is scoring touchdowns on 66.7 percent of red-zone trips, its highest mark since 2011. That was the last year the Cardinal had Andrew Luck, and they ranked fourth nationally at 76.8 percent. They averaged 57.5 percent from 2012-14. … Since giving up 284 rushing yards to UCLA in the 2012 Pac-12 Championship, Stanford has allowed 200 rushing yards to only one Pac-12 opponent in 22 games. The Bruins averaged 264 rushing yards through their last three games in September this year before mustering just 62 against Arizona State.

Series history: UCLA leads the all-time series, 45-38-3, but Stanford is in the midst of the longest streak for either team with seven wins. The Bruins’ last win was 23-20 win at the Rose Bowl in 2008, one in which Kevin Craft took seven sacks but threw a go-ahead touchdown to Cory Harkey with 10 seconds left.

Key players:

QB Kevin Hogan, RSr., 6-4, 218 — 81/120, 1,155 yards, 9 TD, 2 INT
— After hovering between 145.8 and 151.5 in passing efficiency through his first three seasons, Hogan is at a career-high 169.8 this fall despite spraining his ankle last month.

RB Christian McCaffrey, So., 6-0, 201 — 105 carries, 601 yards, 1 TD
– He’s revitalized Stanford’s run game after a down 2014 season, and is on track to be the team’s third 1,400-yard rusher in four years. The former four-star recruit is also second in the country with 1,149 all-purpose yards, 358 of which came on kickoff returns.

RB Remound Wright, RSr., 5-9, 205 — 38 carries, 122 yards, 7 TD
– Twenty-eight other FBS players can match Wright’s seven touchdown runs, but they each have at least 72 carries. All but seven of them have hit triple digits.

ILB Blake Martinez, Sr., 6-2, 245 — 63 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 INT, 4 pass breakups
— He leads the country with 12.6 tackles per game. If he can maintain that pace, he’ll be the first post-1980s player to join Stanford’s top-10 individual season totals.

OLB Peter Kalambayi, RSo., 6-3, 242 — 28 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks, 3 QB hurries
– The top recruit in Stanford’s 2013 class, Kalambayi broke out with career-high 12 tackles in a season-opening loss to Northwestern.

Line: UCLA opened as a 4.5-point underdog, but the line has climbed to 6 points.

Opponent in GIF form:

via GIPHY

Fun fact: In 1975, Stanford students voted to make “Robber Barons” the school’s new mascot, after voting down an alumni-backed effort to reinstate “Indians” — their mascot from 1930-72. The vote was not accepted, and Stanford president Donald Kennedy later established the color “Cardinal” to represent all athletic teams.