Searching for their first win, the Bruins had nowhere left to go but up.
Nothing to lose. Everything to prove.
But the climb never came.
UCLA football (0-3) fell 35-10 to New Mexico (2-1) on Friday night at the Rose Bowl, extending its winless start to its 2025 campaign and remaining as the sole winless team in the Big Ten. The Bruins trailed by multiple scores in the first half, ceded 450 offensive yards and committed 13 penalties.
“Not the outcome at all that we wanted. It’s coming down to discipline and execution,” said coach DeShaun Foster. “Not executing at a high level and not making plays when we need to. We’re not at our best when our best is needed.”
The Bruins’ run defense was a point of concern for a third straight week, and the Lobos did not hesitate to exploit it. As a unit, the offense ran for 298 yards and three touchdowns – all on a 6.5 yards per carry clip.
The ground attack was initially led by New Mexico running back Scottre Humphrey – who notched triple-digit yardage against Idaho State less than a week ago – and carved up the Bruins’ defense with 10- and 19-yard rushes on the Lobos’ first scoring drive. His four-yard touchdown run capped a 64-yard march that set the tone for the rest of the game.
And after Humphrey left the game due to injury, the attack did not stop. New Mexico running back Damon Bankston continued where his partner left off, gaining 154 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground, all on a 10.3 yards per carry clip. Bankston’s presence was felt through the air, too, notching 49 yards and a score.
Penalties only compounded the Bruins’ problems.
Seven flags in the first half stalled drives and extended Lobo possessions, giving away nearly a field’s worth of free yardage. And UCLA’s discipline problems were not fixed at intermission. The Bruins added six more flags for a grand total of 136 yards throughout the contest.
“Our defense went out there, did a great job, executed, got us a stop. And then, you know, we come out, get down there, into the red area – and then shoot ourselves in the foot with a penalty,” said redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava. “So we got to be cleaner, we got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s costing us points, and it’s making our defense go out there after three–and-out.
While UCLA’s defense virtually kept the squad out of the game, the offense did not help either.
The Bruins’ sole answer came late in the second quarter
Iamaleava hit junior wide receiver Mikey Matthews for a 32-yard gain, found redshirt senior tight end Hudson Habermehl for nine yards and capped off the Bruins’ first and only touchdown drive with a 12-yard pass to redshirt senior wide receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala. At the time, this gave UCLA fans something to be hopeful for.
But that drive was all the Bruin offense could muster, other than a 51-yard field goal from junior kicker Mateen Bhanghani.
The Bruin offense garnered over 300 yards of offense, including 109 yards on the ground on a five-yard per carry clip, but was limited by offensive penalties and an attack that reached the red zone just once.
Even though the Bruins came away with two fumble recoveries and multiple goal-line stops, the momentum generated was not enough to push the UCLA offense to the end zone.
The squad’s 10-point finish marks the first season the Bruins have started 0-3 since 2018.
“It’s really little things,” said redshirt senior defensive lineman Gary Smith III. “It seems like it’s not because nobody wants to start 0-3, but there’s been a lot of little details that we got to clean up. We got the guys to do it – we just gotta get it done.”
The Bruins finally reignited a spark when redshirt senior defensive back Key Lawrence recorded the first turnover of the season.
But momentum slipped yet again.
After bouncing a pass into the ground, Iamaleava led the team to another three-and-out, totalling a 0-for-5 start coming out of the half.
“You can just continue to do stuff to make people have discipline in the building, and they’re just going out there and not executing that,” Foster said. “It’s startling. It blows my mind. It’s something that I’ve never been around. We’re going to figure it out.”
