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Even a 10-2 season doesn’t buy UCLA any respect.

Heading into Saturday’s game against Utah, UCLA has felt the backhand of the national polls, not even receiving votes in the Associated Press poll. The Bruins were seen as a one-season success – and now a rebuilding program.

The Utes would then appear to be their mirror image. After winning their last two games of the season – a seven-point victory over rival BYU and a 28-point blowout of then-No. 24 Georgia Tech in the Emerald Bowl – the Utes are nationally considered a rising program. They finished just out of the rankings in both the USA Today poll and the AP poll, and appear to be just a win against the Bruins away from vaulting into the top 25.

It is an early-season test for the Bruins, and it will answer many of the offseason questions surrounding the program. Will the defense, under new defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, show serious improvement? Will the running game be able to deal with the loss of Maurice Drew? Will Ben Olson find the mojo that made him the No. 1 recruit in the nation after high school?

The Bruins come into the game confident that these questions will be answered positively. More than anything, however, they are simply eager to get started.

“I am just happy to get it going now,” redshirt sophomore quarterback Ben Olson said. “We’ve really picked up the intensity in practice this week. All of training camp has been building up for this, so all the guys are just excited.”

They will need to bring that excitement and intensity if they are to best a Utah team that is confident and focused on beating UCLA. Utes senior cornerback Eric Weddle has been quoted in the Deseret Morning News as saying that the Utes have two goals: to win the Mountain West Conference title and to beat UCLA.

Not only will the Bruins be dealing with a team that is geared up to beat them, they will have to face a spread option offense which can cause fits for teams that are not well prepared for it.

“It’s a tricky offense,” redshirt junior defensive tackle Kevin Brown said. “It’s pretty difficult to defend if you don’t play your techniques well. We have to be sharp mentally against that kind of offense.”

The Bruins feel their defense is more than up to the challenge. After a fall camp in which the defense was consistently better than the offense, the defenders are ready to show off what they can do in an actual game.

“I really like our new style of defense,” redshirt junior linebacker Christian Taylor said. “It is constantly attacking, and we are very aggressive. I think Utah is going to be very surprised by what they encounter on Saturday.”

Despite the rankings, UCLA feels this is a winnable game in its quest to prove detractors wrong. At the same time, however, the Bruins are not looking past the Utes.

“We have been waiting for this game a long time, and there is no way we would overlook them,” junior running back Chris Markey said. “In order to reach our final goal of 12-0, we have to start 1-0.”

With reports from Sagar Parikh and Adam de Jong, Bruin Sports senior staff.