UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson runs past a Stanford defender during a game last month at the Rose Bowl. He will lead the Bruin's offense in the Sun Bowl.
The UCLA Bruins football team has accepted an invitation to the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. The Bruins ended the regular season with a record of 9-3 and ranked 18th in the nation. They will meet the Pittsburgh Panthers of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Panthers were 8-4 on the season and in second place in the ACC Coastal division. The Las Vegas betting line currently has the Bruins favored by 3.5 points.
The game will be played on Friday, Dec. 30, 2022, at the Sun Bowl Stadium in and will be televised nationally on CBS. The game is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time. This will be the fifth appearance for the Bruins in the Sun Bowl and their first since 2013, when they defeated Virginia Tech, 42-12.
From a west coast perspective, the 2022 season was a very good for the Pac-12 and UCLA. The Pac-12 ended up with six teams in the top 18 of the final CFP rankings. They had four of the top five offenses in college football by total yards per game. Tennessee was #1, followed by Washington, UCLA, Oregon, and USC. They had five of the top ten scoring offenses in the nation in USC, Washington, Utah, Oregon, and UCLA.
They had three of the top ten passing offenses in the nation in Washington, USC, and Arizona, with Washington leading the nation. They had two of the top ten rushing offenses in the nation in UCLA and Utah, with UCLA leading the nation in average rushing yards per carry. Washington led the nation in third down conversion percentage. USC led the nation in turnover margin with an amazing +22 margin.
The Pac-12 had some good nonconference wins, including a 4-8 Stanford team winning at Notre Dame. They have the likely Heisman trophy winner in USC sophomore Caleb Williams and two schools playing in the New Year's Day bowl games on January 2nd . Utah will represent the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl as the Conference champion against the Penn State Nittany Lions and USC earned an at-large berth to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, to take on the Tulane Green Wave.
The coaching changes in 2022 have really made a difference and the influx of quality quarterbacks through the transfer portal helped. The conference was just more fun and interesting to watch this year. And now Deion Sanders is coming to Colorado. Sanders, a hall-of-fame player in the NFL with a bigger than life persona, was hired as the new head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. That should make the Pac-12 even more entertaining.
This was UCLA's best season since the 2014 season when the Bruins finished 10-3. USC is 11-2 on the season, their best season since 2017, when they went 11-3. If they beat Tulane in the Cotton bowl, they will finish with 12 wins, the most for a USC football team since 2008.
The Pac-12 all-conference teams were announced on Monday, along with the offensive & defensive players of the year. The Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year was quarterback Caleb Williams of USC. The Pac-12 Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year was USC defensive end Tuli Tuipulotu, who led the nation in sacks with 12.5 sacks.
USC had eight players named to the first team or second team on offense and defense, led by Williams and Tuipulotu. For UCLA, Zach Charbonnet was named first team All-Pac-12 at running back and left guard Atonio Mafi made second team All-Pac-12 on offense. On defense UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu made the first team All-Pac-12 on defense, while linebacker Darius Muasau made the All-Pac-12 second team on defense.
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