Bruins need a productive November for a shot at conference title

November is approaching and, for the first time in Coach Jim Mora’s tenure as coach, the Bruins need some help entering the final month of the regular season.

UCLA (6-2 overall, 3-2 in Pac-12 play) faces Arizona (6-1, 3-1) on Saturday, and another tightrope act may be in the offing. The Bruins have won five of their six games by a combined total of 23 points, including Saturday’s 40-37 double overtime victory over Colorado.

Two years ago, a 4-1 November got the Bruins into the Pac-12 title game. Last season, they went 4-1 and were kept out only by a loss to Arizona State. This time, even if the Bruins go 4-0 in November, they would need Utah to lose two games and Arizona State one.

The Bruins’ sometimes fickle fan base was told -- by ESPN and others -- that UCLA was a contender for the national title. UCLA, Mora has pointed out on more than one occasion the past couple weeks, is a team with only six seniors on scholarship and that there is a maturation process with a young team.

UCLA’s only losses this season were to No. 5 Oregon and No. 18 Utah. Mora felt Sunday was a time to defend the program.

“We’re still growing as a team,” Mora said. “We’re two years into our tenure and we have a 75% overhauled roster. We’re 25-8 [in regular season play] with a completely overhauled roster.”

Factoring in the turnover, Mora said, “As much gloom and doom as there is out there, I challenge anyone to find a UCLA team that has done better than this group.” He went even further, saying, “Let’s not forget, the last game before we got started was a 50-0 [butt] kicking.”

USC administered that shellacking in the 2011 regular season finale. The Bruins have beaten the Trojans in back-to-back seasons under Mora.

The history lesson, though, can wait.

What UCLA can do to alleviate discontent among those social-media-savvy members in the fan base is find a path to the Pac-12 title game.

UCLA is 8-2 in November under Mora. But winning won’t be enough. Arizona, Arizona State and Utah are the South Division teams who control their own destinies.

The Bruins, though, are concerned with themselves, not the status of the division race.

“We need to learn how to be consistent, especially when we have a lead,” safety Anthony Jefferson said. “We have to keep that lead, not let the game get close.”

Jefferson said that it comes down to doing jobs individually.

“I don’t think there is any pressing,” Jefferson said. “We just have to lock in and do our assignments.”

The Bruins’ psyche has been an ongoing topic within the team. UCLA had to survive dicey moments at the end against California and Colorado the past two weeks.

“We play so tense, we have to let it go,” receiver Jordan Payton said. “That’s what we were talking about at the end of the game [Saturday], just let it go and play. We are extremely talented across the board. We just have to put it all together at some point.”

Numbers game

The Bruins are young, but they do have eight players available who have started at least 20 games. Another six have 15 or more starts and four more have 10 or more starts. That’s 18 players who have the equivalency of one season as a starter.

Still, attrition is always an issue as a season progresses. Mora said that UCLA currently has 13 players unavailable who were counted last offseason.

Mora said the depth “is better, but we’re still developing.”

Eric K

UCLA linebacker Eric Kendricks had 16 tackles, 15 of which were unassisted, against Colorado. He also returned an interception 21 yards to set up a field goal.

“He has had productive games this year, but they were still ones where we looked at the tape and said, ‘Great game, except for …’ ” Mora said. “There were no ‘except for’ in this game. Eric was outstanding.”

chris.foster@latimes.com

Twitter: @cfosterlatimes