No. 11 Utah at No. 18 UCLA Odds, Prediction for Week 6
Odds, best bets and analysis for this college football matchup
Matthew Horner - Oct 3, 2022, 2:53pm EDT
No. 11 Utah Utes
The Utes are in the midst of another great season of college football in 2022. Utah is 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-12 following a 42-16 victory over Oregon State. They gained 361 yards of total offense but the Utes gave up too much on defense allowing 417 yards to the Oregon State offense. Difference was, the Beavers simply couldn't hang on to the football and gave it up four times. Utah QB Cameron Rising has passed for 1,153 yards with 13 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
Utah is 6-1 ATS in its last seven games, so they have been covering the number at a torrid pace. As for the total, the over has cashed in 10 of the Utes last 15 games.
Utah is a team that many people liked going into this season to be a real contender for the college football playoff, and they are still in contention. That heartbreaking loss to Florida in Week 1 seems like a long time ago, and since then, the Utes have done a good job ripping their opposition.
No. 18 UCLA Bruins
UCLA improved to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in Pac-12 play following its 40-32 victory over Washington. I told everyone last week that UCLA is a sleeping Giant that has been waiting to wake up for a little while now, and maybe that win over a ranked Washington team was the game that awoke the monster. UCLA gained 499 yards of total offense and did not turn the ball over. QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson passed for 315 yards and three touchdowns, and the Bruins led by as many as 24 points at one point in the game.
Thompson-Robinson has passed for 1,211 yards with 11 touchdowns and has been picked off just once. He's been fantastic as a fifth-year senior, and he's been in head coach Chip Kelly's system his whole career. Kelly gets a lot of hate for his failure in the NFL, but some guys just can't make that transition to the professional league. Nick Saban failed in the NFL. Kelly has done a good job completely rebuilding a once proud program back to prominence.
UCLA is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games, and the over has cashed in 8 of the Bruins last 10.
My Prediction
Utah lost the opening game of the season to Florida, but since then, the Utes have not allowed more than 16 points in any one game and are allowing an average of only 10.8 points per game over the last four. All of those games were victories. This will be UCLA's toughest defense they have faced so far, but they are at home for the match.
Once again, I'll take the points with UCLA at home at +4.5.
