College football preview: UCLA and USC roundtable

The college football season is upon us, which means it is time for Southern California college football fans to pick a side between USC and UCLA.

It’s that time of year again, while the rest of the country watches the leaves turn colors here in sunny Southern California the greatest rivalry in college football will heat up.

Both the UCLA and USC football programs lost phenomenal quarterbacks to the NFL Draft from the previous season and come into 2018 with plenty of questions.

UCLA hired Chip Kelly and are looking to turn the program from just good to elite, meanwhile USC will find out if Clay Helton can contend for a National Championship without Sam Darnold at quarterback.

Here is our round table discussion previewing the up coming season:

Who will win this year’s Crosstown Rivalry?

Lamarr:

I think USC will take the game this year. Even with a true freshman JT Daniels at quarterback, USC has more talent than UCLA. UCLA is in a rebuilding year under Chip Kelly, it will be a year or two before they can compete with USC.

Jamaal:

With the game at the Coliseum, I think USC will win. I see both teams struggling early as they both try to break in brand new quarterbacks. But as the season progresses we might see a great showdown in their rivalry game. Ultimately USC’s talent wins out.

Who will end up with the better record at the end of the season

Lamarr:

I have USC at 9-3 and UCLA at 7-5. USC will struggle to start the season with back to back road games at Stanford and Texas; for freshman JT Daniels that will be tough to overcome. As the season goes on, I expect to be better and win a lot of games.

UCLA will start slow because of the new system they will be running. I look for them to get better as the season go on as they get more comfortable running Chip Kelly fast pace offense.

Jamaal:

To me, both teams will make bowl games but I don’t think either is a contender for a Power Six Bowl games. Again ultimately USC’s talent wins out, and they end up with the better record.

UCLA fans should temper expectations. There will be some growing pains as Kelly implements a new system and a new attitude. People should remember Kelly didn’t recruit a majority of these players and he’s going to want to make the program into his image.

Who has more pressure on them to succeed: Clay Helton or Chip Kelly?

Lamarr:

As of right now, I say Helton. USC has more talent and is expected to win more games. Chip Kelly is in the stage of rebuilding the UCLA Program so it will take him a year or two to start succeeding there. But once they are rebuilding stage is over Chip Kelly will have more pressure to succeed because of in the previous tenure at Oregon.

Jamaal:

Poor Clay Helton, he’s won a Rose Bowl and taken USC to the Pac-12 Championship game and yet he’s probably sitting on the hottest seat in college football. If this season begins to fall apart on USC the village folk will be at the Coliseum with pitchforks.

Just by virtue of his college record Chip Kelly should be afforded the time to build something at UCLA. After the debacle that was the end of the Jim Mora era, UCLA fans will be more than happy to give Kelly plenty of leash this season.

That’s out discussion all that’s left is for the games to start…