UCLA remade itself to better match up with the Stanfords of college football.
The Bruins bulked up, adding hundreds of pounds of muscle, and changed their offense to more of a smash-mouth style.
Now they will try to emulate the Cardinal in an unintended way: rebounding from a season-opening loss on the road against an unranked team.
Stanford fell flat against Northwestern in its 2015 opener and everything turned out fine. The Cardinal won the Pac-12 Conference title and the Rose Bowl.
That might be the best the Bruins can hope for after a 31-24 overtime loss to Texas A&M on Saturday, though quarterback Josh Rosen didn’t seem to fear that his preseason ambitions of a national title had been foiled.