Thursday Night Football: UCLA vs. Arizona

Vultures already have descended upon Mike Stoops’ Arizona program. His Wildcats started 7-1 last year and looked primed to leap forward from mediocrity. Ten straight losses to FBS opponents later, Stoops was out. The school shed his corpse over the bye week to excise the stink.

Pac 12 Title Race. The Pac 12 South is sub-par and UCLA at 3-3 (2-1 in conference) is still in the race. A win tonight would leave them even with Arizona State, both vying to lose by at least three touchdowns to Stanford or Oregon in the title game. More realistically, a very good-case scenario would see UCLA finish out 4-2 and 7-5 overall. Would a bowl game be enough to save Neuheisel’s bacon? Or, will the program prioritize future success over tolerable mediocrity? Paging Mike Leach.

Keys. Obviously, how Arizona reacts to a coach departure will play a role. They could be liberated and have fun out there. They could be completely demoralized. For UCLA, which Kevin Prince shows up will be crucial. They will hope it’s the guy who led the comeback against Washington State, rather than the one benched after three interceptions in seven attempts against Texas.

Prediction. These teams are a combined 3-9 against the spread. The line is Arizona by 5.5. Gun to my head, I would trust UCLA to put up an okay effort against a bad team on the road before trusting the Wildcats to beat a fellow FBS team. That is the only time I would make that wager.

[Photo via Getty]