If All Goes According to Schedule, 5-0 Is Possible

This might be jumping ahead a little, but UCLA has a great opportunity to start the year with a 5-0 record, thanks to a favorable early schedule filled with beatable teams.

“Yeah, we’ve looked at the schedule,” junior free safety Dennis Keyes said, “but we’re trying not to [overlook] any of our opponents. We just have to come out and focus every week. If we start fast, we start fast. That’s good for us.”

After beating Utah, 31-10, on Saturday, the Bruins will be at home again this week against Rice, which lost to UCLA, 63-21, last year at the Rose Bowl. The Owls were 1-10 last season and began this year with a 31-30 loss to Houston at home.

Then, after a bye week, UCLA begins Pacific 10 Conference play with a game at Washington, which struggled to defeat San Jose State at home on Saturday and is 0-3 against the Bruins since Karl Dorrell became UCLA’s coach.

On Sept. 30, UCLA will face Stanford at the Rose Bowl in another matchup that looks good for the Bruins. The Cardinal lost its Pac-10 opener last week at Oregon and lost at home to UCLA last year, 30-27, in overtime.

The following week, the Bruins play host to Arizona, the team that handed them their first loss last year. The Wildcats, who went 3-8 last season, defeated Brigham Young, 16-13, in their opener Saturday.

So, potentially, the Bruins could be 5-0 heading into an Oct. 14 showdown at Oregon.

But that’s a scenario too far in the future to concern Dorrell.

“We’re coming off a good strong performance, but there are a lot of areas we can improve,” said Dorrell, whose teams are 8-3 in September in his three years at UCLA. “But we’re glad to be in the position that we are at right now.”

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Reviewing game film last season rarely was a pleasurable experience for UCLA’s defensive players, but it was more enjoyable this weekend after the Bruins’ big effort against Utah.

“The vibe in the room was very good, everyone was upbeat and excited about the performance,” said Keyes, who had a team-high seven tackles for a defense that held Utah to 287 yards in total offense, including 79 in the second half.

“It was real different,” Keyes said of Sunday’s film session. “Last year, we would go into meetings with our heads down because we knew that we had started the game bad and we knew what to expect.”

Junior strong safety Chris Horton gave first-year coordinator DeWayne Walker and his defensive staff credit for their game preparation. The 10 points given up was UCLA’s best defensive effort since beating Stanford, 21-0, in 2004.

“We knew [Utah’s] stuff like the back of our hands,” Horton said. “Guys were breaking on routes because they knew where the play was going. It was fun.”

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Sophomore outside linebacker John Hale, who did not play against Utah because of a team suspension, will return this week and play behind Aaron Whittington, Dorrell said Monday. Hale was listed as a starter at the start of training camp.

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lonnie.white@latimes.com