ASU Football: UCLA Players to Watch

After a tough loss in Salt Lake City for Herm Edwards and Arizona State (5-2, 2-2 Pac-12), the Devils will be on the road again come Saturday. Fortunately, the weather in Pasadena should be nicer than Salt Lake City.

They will be taking on a Bruins team that just notched their second win of the season, defeating Stanford 34-16 last Thursday down on The Farm. The win snapped an 11-year drought against the Cardinal.

UCLA (2-5, 2-2 in conference) though, has once again struggled to get wins with head coach Chip Kelly at the helm in his second season. With that being said, the Bruins were able to beat Stanford last week, and they grabbed a win against a ranked Washington State team during week four in what turned out to be one of the wildest games of the year.

These are a few UCLA players to watch out for on Saturday:

Sophomore quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson -- Only one Pac-12 quarterback has thrown more interceptions this year than Dorian Thompson-Robinson (Colorado’s Steven Montez). In all but one of the games he has played in this season, he has thrown at least one interception.

Despite DTR’s rough play so far in 2019, he’s still an impact player heading into Saturday’s game at the Rose Bowl.

Thompson-Robinson is coming off his best game of the year. He ran for one touchdown and threw for two more in UCLA’s win over Stanford. Even though the interceptions have been numerous, Thompson-Robinson still ranks among the top-five in the conference in both touchdowns and pass yards per game (13 TD, 239.2 Y/G).

Junior running back Demetric Felton and senior running back Joshua Kelley -- We’re breaking the rules here and going with a two for one that includes Demetric Felton and Joshua Kelley.

The junior and senior running backs have been doing most of the damage this season offensively for the Bruins, and that trend could continue Saturday.

Felton can do it all. He leads the team in reception yards with 420, but is also just shy of 300 rushing yards. Kelley got most of the calls last week against Stanford, but Felton’s ability to hurt opposing teams as a rusher or a receiver remains his greatest strength. Look for him to bounce back after a disappointing game against the Cardinal.

Kelley has hit his stride at this point in the season, and has looked like a stud in his past three games. He has found the end zone in four straight games, rushing for a touchdown in UCLA’s past three.

Kelley’s 95.2 rush yards per game are second best among conference running backs, right behind Utah’s Zack Moss at 102.2 rush yards per game.

Senior linebacker Krys Barnes -- The defense may not be solid this year for UCLA (currently allowing 34.6 PPG), but Barnes has done all he can to make things difficult for opposing offenses.

He leads the Bruin defense with 47 total tackles and has forced a fumble as well. Barnes had a nice game against ASU last year, wrapping up Sun Devil ball carriers 11 times. UCLA will need Barnes to have a nice game on Saturday if they are to have any shot of slowing down Jayden Daniels and Arizona State’s offense.