Welcome to the first of a three part preview of the Sun Bowl. The ApostroCats will be taking on the UCLA Bruins in what everyone expects to be a high-scoring affair. Not the kind of affair that you see on The Young and The Restless, although those have lots of scoring too. In that spirit -- the football one -- I'll try to break down my preview into three sections: When UCLA has the ball, when NU has the ball, and special teams. Today, we look at the UCLA offense matched up against the NU defense.
The big three, as every team must have, for UCLA are senior quarterback Drew Olson, junior running back Maurice Drew, and senior tight end Marcedes Lewis. Behind these three, plus several others (7 receivers with 10+ catches, 3 backs with 30+ carries) the Bruins' offense is in the top 25 overall nationwide and the top 20 in passing. Olson is the country's third best passer (QB rating or 165.2) and can be expected to make a lot of good decisions and good throws.
More after the jump.
The Wildcats will have to depend heavily on the linebacking corps and safeties to keep UCLA's rushing and middle-distance passing attack from creating too many big plays. As usual, this will fall more on the shoulders of senior middle linebacker Tim "Two-Ton" McGarigle. That's not his nickname, really. It's just one of the best nicknames ever in general, as far as I'm concerned. Staring LBs Adam Kadela and Nick Roach will factor heavily as well.
In the secondary, look for two safeties that didn't see much or any time at the end of the season. Freshman Brendan Smith should be back from his leg injury and junior Brian Heinz is said to be available for the Sun Bowl after missing the entire regular season with an injury. If both NU safeties put in strong games, the defense may hold UCLA down just enough!
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