With the spring period coming to a close around the country, outlets that dropped way-too-early top-25s in the late winter months are beginning to update them as we move into the dead of summer.

USA Today did as such and showed some love to the Bruins. Often times it has been L.A.’s other resident that has earned top-25 buzz, but for USA Today’s Erick Smith, it was the Bruins who deserved to be the third Pac-12 team ranked, behind Utah (No. 6) and Oregon (No. 14).

Here’s what Smith wrote on the Bruins:

Chip Kelly’s slow build of the Bruins hasn’t produced dramatic results each year but he has the program in contention to make a run for the Pac-12 title. Dorian Thompson-Robinson passed on the NFL and will be one of the top quarterbacks in the country. Running back Zach Charbonnet gives the offense balance. The biggest upgrades are needed on defense, especially in the secondary where UCLA struggled in its four losses. The transfer portal addressed some of the needs. There’s still uncertainty how it will shake out in the fall.

Thompson-Robinson and Charbonnet provide hope UCLA can build off its 8-4 record last season and challenge for a Pac-12 South title. With Arizona State—which owned the second-place tie-breaker over UCLA last season thanks to an early-October win—imploding, UCLA is likely looking at Utah and USC as its stiffest competition for the division crown.

The rest of the USA Today Top 25 was as follows:

  1. Alabama
  2. Georgia
  3. Ohio State
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Clemson
  6. Utah
  7. Michigan
  8. Texas A&M
  9. BYU
  10. NC State
  11. Iowa
  12. Baylor
  13. Notre Dame
  14. Oregon
  15. Wisconsin
  16. Oklahoma State
  17. Wake Forest
  18. Michigan State
  19. Houston
  20. Penn State
  21. Arkansas
  22. Pittsburgh
  23. Kentucky
  24. UCLA
  25. Tennessee