The Big Ten made its debut as an 18-team football conference three weeks ago with the addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, the four teams that administrators targeted in response to the SEC flexing its muscles by adding Texas and Oklahoma.

While it’s a sample size of only two or three games played by the Big Ten’s new quartet, some early opinions can be formed on each debutant and how their seasons are progressing. Here’s a look at each:

The Bruins (1-1) look very much like a program that saw its coach, Chip Kelly, inconveniently leave in February, forcing the school to scramble to hire former standout running back DeShaun Foster after an unsuccessful pursuit of Gophers coach P.J. Fleck. UCLA opened with a 16-13 win at Hawaii before absorbing a 42-13 thrashing from Indiana at the Rose Bowl in the Bruins’ first Big Ten game.

“That’s not the standard that we were looking for,” Foster said. “We’ve got to improve.”

The problems for the Bruins are on both sides of the ball, particularly on third down. UCLA ranks last in offensive third-down conversions (28.6%) and defensive third-down stops (50%).

The road ahead doesn’t look good for the Bruins, who enter a brutal stretch of their schedule with a trip to No. 16 LSU on Saturday, a visit from No. 9 Oregon next week and a trip to No. 10 Penn State on Oct. 5. By the time the Gophers arrive at the Rose Bowl for their Oct. 12 game, the Bruins could be 1-4.

The Huskies lost to Michigan in the national championship game, then lost 20 of their 22 starters and saw coach Kalen DeBoer leave for Alabama.