Behind the Boxscore: UCLA vs. Hawaii

It’s officially game week.

LSU begins its 2021 season Saturday night in maybe the single most iconic stadium, the Rose Bowl to take on the UCLA Bruins. But UCLA has already started its season and routed Hawaii 44-10 last Saturday aka week 0. Let’s look a little closer at the boxscore.

1.2: Hawaii’s yards per rush

It’s game week and we’re still not sure who will be the LSU go-to running back and the offensive line didn’t exactly take a big step forward during fall camp. Now, yes, LSU’s line and running backs are probably more talented than the Rainbow Warriors but don’t expect the Bruins to get pushed around.

50: Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s completion percentage

I like DTR as a player but if he’s completing half his passes against Hawaii, I can’t help but think he’ll struggle going against Derek Stingley and Elias Ricks

17.7: Zach Charbonnet’s yards per carry

Charbonnet was one of the biggest prizes in the transfer portal and he impressed in his first game with the Bruins. That number is a little inflated by a 47-yard run, but if you take that away he still averaged a first down per carry (11.8 yards on five carries). He and fellow back Brittain Brown combined for 184 yards on 19 carries, an average of 9.7 yards a touch. We’ve been hyping up the Tiger defensive front all summer long, well they had better be ready for Saturday.

7: Bruin penalties

That’s about what you see for a team in its first game of the season and I’d expect that number to drop slightly for UCLA on Saturday. LSU, obviously, hasn’t played yet so expect the number of flags to be around there.

32982: Attendance

LSU fans travel as well as anybody and I wouldn’t be shocked if 30 to 40 percent of the Rose Bowl is purple and gold.