Baylor has won the coin toss with a call of tails, and the Bears have chosen to receive the opening kickoff.
With the nation's top-ranked offense, they'll try to make UCLA play catch up right from the start.
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A four-member Navy parachute team just made a grand entrance to Qualcomm and a Marine color guard unfurled a length-of-the-field-size flag for the national anthem, which was punctuated by two blasts of fireworks.
The parachute team is called the Leapfrogs. The third man down carried an American flag, but the fourth drew the loudest cheer: he wore a UCLA jersey.
There's no doubt this is a UCLA crowd. Baylor's team received a loud round of boos as it entered the stadium. UCLA drew cheers.
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The Holiday Bowl has a history of drawing good-sized crowds and tonight is no exception.
Minutes before kickoff, there are only a few completely open sections of seating.
Game organizers predicted UCLA and Baylor would draw about 55,000 fans to Qualcomm Stadium, which has a capacity of 71,294.
The Holiday Bowl has been played since 1978, and only once -- 1992, when Hawaii played Illinois -- has the crowd been smaller than 50,000.
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UCLA enters tonight's game with a 9-3 record, meaning the Bruins have a chance for a 10-win season for only the seventh time in the history of the program.
And Coach Jim Mora could become the first first-year coach to win 10 games.
The best record of any first-year UCLA coach was turned in by Terry Donahue in 1976, when the Bruins went 9-2-1. However, that team was crushed, 36-6, by Alabama in the Liberty Bowl.
In terms of winning finishes, UCLA was 8-2-1 in 1965, Tommy Prothro's first year. And the Bruins defeated top-ranked Michigan State, 14-12, in the Rose Bowl.
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When you talk about Baylor football, you talk about going from first to (nearly) worst.
The Bears lead the nation in total offense, averaging 578.7 yards per game.
And the Bears are next to last -- 119 out of 120 -- in defense, giving up an average of 513.9 yards per game.
