After entering the 2022 NCAA season without much hype one way or another, the Bruins turned more than a few heads of UCLA football fans with their impressive 6-0 start. The offense looked good, the defense did too, and quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, one of the best-kept secrets of the Pac-12, suddenly found himself a household name for his strong play from Weeks 2-6. Chip Kelly was back back, as was excitement about LA's other collegiate football team, and even if the Rose Bowl wasn't packed with 100,000 fans – a fact haters on Twitter love to point to – the prospects Westwood's finest winning the conference for the first time since 1998 – before DTR was born – looked very much within reach.

… but then the Oregon Ducks dropped a 45-30 beatdown on the Bruins in Week 7, and suddenly, the 9th-ranked team in the nation lost much of its luster.

Now firmly in the middle of the Pac-12's, um, pack with a 3-1 division record and only one more game against currently ranked team – USC – left on the schedule, the chances of UCLA making their first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoffs felt largely dashed for fans. And yet, apparently, no one told that to Thompson-Robinson, as he told Ben Bolch of the LA Times, that UCLA has “greater aspirations than winning the Pac-12,” which, as the writer pointed out in his tweet, can only mean one thing: the College Football Playoff.

Now granted, getting into the College Football Playoffs with one loss out of the Pac-12 isn't the easiest task imaginable; the last Pac-12 to make it to the CFP was Washington all the way back in 2016. Still, it's nice to see DTR remains confident in his team's future – that should serve him well down the stretch.