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FACTS & STATS: Site: Rice-Eccles Stadium (45,634) -- Salt Lake City, Utah. Television: FSN-PT, KJZZ. Home Record: UCLA 4-1, Utah 2-2. Away Record: UCLA 1-3, Utah 3-2. Neutral Record: UCLA 0-0, Utah 0-0. Conference Record: UCLA 4-2, Utah 2-4. Series Record: UCLA leads, 8-1.

GAME NOTES: The UCLA Bruins are surging towards the finish line of the regular season and with a shot at a Pac-12 title berth in sight, they will take on the Utah Utes this Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The Bruins put themselves in a great position to claim the South Division title in the Pac-12 after defeating Arizona State, 29-28, this past weekend. It was the second straight win for the Bruins, who are now tied atop the division with the Sun Devils and USC.

The Utes also head into this matchup with two straight wins, having defeated Oregon State and Arizona for their first two Pac-12 victories in school history. The recent win over Arizona was the fifth on the year for Utah, which returns home where the team is 2-2 on the season.

The Bruins currently own a commanding 8-1 edge over Utah in the all-time series, but the lone win for the Utes came in the last matchup, as they clobbered UCLA, 44-6 in Salt Lake City.

UCLA's recent surge offensively is mainly due to the play by the rushing attack, which comes into this matchup averaging a robust 190.9 ypg.

The Bruins are fortunate to have a two-headed monster in the backfield of Johnathan Franklin and Derrick Coleman. Franklin is leading the team with 606 yards, but Coleman is quickly catching him and comes into this matchup with 462 yards and eight touchdowns.

Coleman rushed for 119 yards and two scores against Arizona State, while Franklin added 41 yards and a touchdown. Even quarterback Kevin Prince got into the action, rushing for 61 yards. The signal caller also threw for 196 yards and one touchdown.

Prince has struggled with his arm on the season though and comes into this matchup with only 831 yards and four touchdowns.

The offense has clearly picked up the pace, but defensively the Bruins are still inconsistent. Stopping the run has been an issue for this unit all year, and teams have taken advantage of that to the tune of 186.4 ypg and 19 touchdowns.

Even though the Bruins got the better of Arizona State, the Sun Devils still managed to rush for 201 yards and two touchdowns on 38 carries. Tevin McDonald led the way in the win with 11 tackles, giving him 39 on the year, to go along with his team-best three interceptions. Pat Larimore is currently pacing the team with 57 stops.

The Utes are finally finding the win column, but still the offense is not clicking on a consistent basis. Jon Hays has filled in admirably for Jordan Wynn, but the quarterback still has some issues to overcome and in seven games he has just seven touchdowns against seven interceptions.

The lone star to this otherwise pedestrian unit is tailback John White, who comes into this contest with 1,024 yards and 10 touchdowns. White had a monster game against Arizona in the team's recent win, as the tailback rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns. On top of that, Hays had one of his better showings on the year, as he threw for 199 yards and two touchdowns.

The offense is slowly gaining confidence, thanks to the play of White and the progress of Hays, but the reason why Utah has found the win column recently is because of the defense, which is holding opponents to just 20.7 ppg.

Utah has been outstanding against the run, limiting teams to just 95.4 ypg on 2.9 yards per carry. This unit has also relied heavily on its ability to force mistakes and comes into this weekend with 23 takeaways.

Trevor Reilly has forced four of those mistakes, and is also leading the team with nine TFLs and five sacks. Brian Blechen is one of four players with at least two interceptions and also has 54 tackles, which is second only to Chaz Walker's 76.

If Utah can slow down UCLA's rushing attack then the Utes should win at home. The Bruins won't make it easy, though and will give the Utes all they can handle.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Utah 20, UCLA 14