UCLA football 2017 schedule preview: Utah

Utah quarterback Troy Williams (3) tries to slip away from UCLA linebacker Kenny Young (42) last year at the Rose Bowl. Williams returns to the Utes with a new offensive coordinator in 2017. (Photo by Thomas R. Cordova // Press-Telegram/SCNG)

UCLA at Utah
Friday, Nov. 3, 6:30 p.m. PT, FS1/FOX Deportes | Rice-Eccles Stadium

Despite 28 wins over the past three seasons and three straight bowl wins, Utah is the last school without an outright Pac-12 South championship.

“We’re not going to apologize for winning nine-plus games the last three years, but we want to win a championship,” head coach Kyle Whittingham told Athlon Sports. “We’ve got to find a way to break through.”

The Utes tied for the title division title in 2015, but watched USC play in the championship game due to the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Whittingham hopes new offensive coordinator Troy Taylor can be the difference. Taylor was the quarterbacks coach at Eastern Washington last year and called plays for the Eagles as they set FCS records in passing yards (5,160) and total offense (5,766). The Utes (9-4, 5-4 Pac-12 last year) have ranked in the bottom half of the conference in passing offense in each of the past three years.

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UCLA football 2017 schedule preview: Washington

Chris Petersen led Washington to the College Football Playoff in his third year as the program’s head coach. (Ted S. Warren AP)

UCLA at Washington
Saturday, Oct. 28 | Husky Stadium

Jim Mora once said the head coaching job at Washington was his “dream job.” In 2014, the UCLA head coach passed on the chance to return to his alma mater, which cleared the way for Chris Petersen to take the job. Three years later, Petersen’s Huskies are coming off a College Football Playoff berth and their first conference title in 16 years.

The Huskies (12-2, 8-1 Pac-12 last year) reached the Pac-12’s pinnacle and now are fighting to stay there. UW’s success cost the team four early entrants in the 2017 NFL Draft, including star wide receiver John Ross (ninth overall pick) and second-round defensive backs Budda Baker and Sidney Jones, and two assistant coaches, who were hired by NFL teams.

“To me, it is much harder to stay up near the top than get there,” Petersen told the Seattle Times. “These guys don’t know that, but I do. So that’ll be the next step.

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UCLA football 2017 schedule preview: Oregon

First-year Oregon head coach Willie Taggart greets fans at a men’s basketball game. (Photo: Chris Pietsch, AP Photo)

Oregon at UCLA
Saturday, Oct. 21 | Rose Bowl

Willie Taggart is the first Oregon head coach hired from outside the program since 1976. The transition was a tough one.

In the first three months of the former South Florida head coach’s Oregon tenure, one of his new assistants resigned, another jumped ship for a different Pac-12 school and a strength coach was suspended after several players were hospitalized after intense offseason workouts.

When spring practice finally opened April, Taggart started the process of resurrecting the Ducks (4-8, 2-7 Pac-12 last year) after the team’s sudden fall from grace. In remaking a program only three years removed from a College Football Playoff berth, the 40-year-old head coach and his staff quickly gained the trust of his players.

“They all click on the same page,” sophomore linebacker Bryson Young told The Oregonian of said of the new staff. “I can compare it to last year where it just seemed like everybody was in their separate worlds. (Now) when we go into our individual meetings and then go into our group (meeting), everybody is saying the same thing. They’re all on the same page, which is really good for us as a defense because then we’re all on the same page.”

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UCLA football 2017 schedule preview: Arizona

Brandon Dawkins (13) will battle Khalil Tate for Arizona’s starting quarterback job. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

UCLA at Arizona
Saturday, Oct. 14 | Arizona Stadium

Arizona fell from first in the Pac-12 South in 2014 to fifth in one year, then slid one rung lower in 2016, bottoming out with only one conference win.

The Wildcats (3-9, 1-8 Pac-12 last year) continued to struggle defensively in 2016, but were also had one of the most anemic offenses in the league. Despite leading the conference in rushing, Arizona was the Pac-12’s lowest-scoring team with only 24.8 points.

An unsettled quarterback competition and more shuffling on the defensive coaching staff leave the Wildcats with a lot of questions heading into the season.

“We’ve just got so many unknown guys that I think have the talent and are going to be good enough to win with, but until they do it in a game, you don’t really know,” head coach Rich Rodriguez told the Arizona Daily Star. “I feel good about their attitude. I think we’ve got a bunch of guys who love football. There’s no question we’ll be better.”

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UCLA football 2017 schedule preview: Colorado

Colorado running back Phillip Lindsay, front, celebrates after scoring a touchdown against UCLA during the first half of an NCAA college football game Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado at UCLA
Saturday, Sept. 30 | Rose Bowl

Colorado ascended from the Pac-12 South cellar to the Pac-12 Championship Game in just one year. On social media, the Buffaloes (10-4, 8-1 Pac-12 last year) dubbed the stunning climb “The Rise.” This year, the team’s defining social media phrase demands that the Buffaloes “never stop rising.”

“They know they can do it now,” head coach Mike MacIntyre said on the first day of spring practice. “Last year everybody was laughing at us. Now we want to go do it. We didn’t finish it last year.”

No team has ever won back-to-back Pac-12 South titles and no Pac-12 South team has won the conference championship. UCLA is the only team to represent the South in the Pac-12 championship game in back-to-back years, but participated in the 2011 game because USC was ineligible for postseason competition.

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