This post was updated Oct. 5 at 11:15 p.m.
UCLA football (1-4, 1-1 Big Ten) pulled off a miraculous 42-37 upset of No. 7 Penn State (3-2, 0-2) as 24.5-point underdogs Saturday at the Rose Bowl for the program’s first win over a top-10 team since 2010. Interim head coach Tim Skipper collected his first win as a Bruin, with assistant head coach and tight ends coach Jerry Neuheisel notching his first victory as the team’s offensive playcaller after receiving the promotion Tuesday. Daily Bruin senior staffer Kai Dizon gives his five takeaways from what could be a season-turning performance.
Jerry’s World
It was all so perfect.
It is why you love sports – not for numbers, human wreckage or parlays, but for stories and, more so, the people.
Saturday was a perfect sequel to a story in desperate need of a retelling.
The Bruins lost their head coach, defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator in what felt like the blink of an eye.
But assistant head coach and tight ends coach – and frustratingly, still not the official interim offensive coordinator – Jerry Neuheisel took the 17th-worst offense in the nation and scored 42 points.
UCLA has not scored that many in a single game since Oct. 21, 2023.
And when the Bruins hoisted Neuheisel at the Rose Bowl after the clock finally hit zero, it was 2014 all over again – when Neuheisel, then the Bruins’ backup quarterback, led a comeback against Texas, and his teammates raised him all the same.
Elsewhere, Neuheisel’s father, Rick Neuheisel, was punching and screaming in celebration in the CBS analyst booth, and it looked an awful lot like when he did the same as a Pac-12 Network analyst 11 years prior.
Even Noel Mazzone – the Bruins’ offensive coordinator during that 2014 game against Texas – is back with the team as a recruiting analyst and is helping Neuheisel with the offense.
To top it all off, Neuheisel doesn’t look a day older than he did as a player. If he put on a jersey and strapped on a helmet, no one would bat an eye.
And no, Neuheisel’s 2014 comeback performance did not lead to a fruitful playing career. A freshman named Josh Rosen beat Neuheisel out for the starting job the following season.
But how can you not want to see Neuheisel call the offense for at least a little while longer?
It was not flawless.
Neuheisel and redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava admitted the former missed a few playcalls because he flipped the mic on his headset away from his mouth or forgot to press the correct button so the latter could hear him.
And maybe you would like the Bruins to run out the clock the old-fashioned way.
But at the same time – contradictions be damned – it really was perfect.
UCLA recorded just 14 points against Northwestern last week.
Saturday, UCLA put up 42 against a top-10 team.
The difference? Jerry Neuheisel.
Five stars for a reason
Whether you think it is warranted or not, I do not think anyone in college football has been as hated and poked fun at as Nico Iamaleava.
Not only have the critics come after him, but they have also made fun of his dad and brother, freshman quarterback Madden Iamaleava.
For weeks, every UCLA loss was met with a flurry of posts and comments from bitter Tennessee and SEC fans. And basically everyone’s gotten their jab at him, saying Nico Iamaleava is a cautionary tale of the NIL and transfer portal era, and that transferring to UCLA was one of the biggest professional mistakes a college athlete has ever made.
But Saturday – even just for one day – they had nothing to do but shut up and watch.
Iamaleava finished his day with 155 yards on 17-for-24 passing with 128 rushing yards – a career high by 63 yards – for five total touchdowns, another career high.
He had just five total touchdowns in the Bruins’ first four games combined.
The Bruins converted 10 of their 16 third downs. Four of those were with Nico Iamaleava’s arm, and another four were with his legs.
After the game, Neuheisel repeatedly praised Nico Iamaleava for his leadership, commitment and ability. Nico Iamaleava rallied the team after offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri left the program Tuesday and Iamaleava repeatedly put his body on the line Saturday.
And frankly, pessimistic football fans had nothing to do but turn their attention to the one class of 2023 quarterback ranked higher than Iamaleava.
Sorry, Arch.
Not to be skipped over
Interim head coach Tim Skipper is doing things former coach DeShaun Foster couldn’t.
The broadcast said UCLA was playing with enthusiasm – the third pillar of Foster’s D.R.E. motto – which stands for discipline, respect and enthusiasm – that consistently evaded his program.
It is evident that the players liked Foster.
They still bring him up in interviews and have said that those pillars have not changed.
But I don’t think UCLA could have pulled off Saturday’s upset with Foster, Sunseri or former defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe on the coaching staff.
In just around three weeks, Skipper got a team that could barely run, tackle or score to do all those things against one of the best teams in the country.
Foster routinely identified his team’s biggest problems through his 15 games: being unable to put two halves of football together, starting games off too slow and being unable to execute.
Skipper fixed it in two games.
Things that didn’t seem possible a week ago now feel possible.
With the Bruins at 0-3, Skipper took the helm with palpable optimism and conviction to do something with this season. And he’s carried himself with a smile and demeanor the Bruin faithful seldom saw under Foster or even Chip Kelly.
At the very least, his promotion of Neuheisel has been exactly what the Bruins have needed.
Special Teams
A blocked punt turned scoop and score, plus a missed field goal, aren’t great.
But with two game-changing plays, I have to give UCLA’s special teams unit some leeway.
Junior kicker Mahteen Bhaghani has been just about the only consistent cog in the Bruins’ program the past two seasons. He’s missed just five field goals through 17 games as a Bruin and never an extra point, so missing that 56-yarder in the third can be forgiven.
Especially when his 54-yard field goal put UCLA up by 20 to close out the first half, and when his first-quarter onside kick worked to perfection – allowing the Bruins to double up on their first lead all season.
And many will blame Penn State before they credit UCLA, but part of the chess match is surprising your opponent, whether they should be or not. And the Bruins’ fourth-quarter intentional safety, which trimmed the clock down from 25 seconds to 17, did just that.
The Bruins may very well have lost that game – and ruined the story – if not for the two times they caught the Nittany Lions sleeping.
Will I see you in December?
The college football world seems to agree more that Penn State is far worse than its top-10 national ranking than UCLA is better than its previous 0-4 record.
But the Bruin faithful have to be thinking that this season can be turned around, right?
UCLA has seven games left and needs to win five to go bowling.
A week ago, you would probably say only one or two of those remaining seven are winnable.
But now?
If you’re going to embarrass hot-seated Penn State coach James Franklin, why not get revenge on Indiana coach Curt Cignetti after last season’s 42-13 rout at the Rose Bowl?
Why not go after Ryan Day for letting Chip Kelly walk out of Westwood scot-free?
Why not make a fool out of future Bruin head coach favorites Jedd Fisch and defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn when UCLA faces Washington and USC, respectively?
The point is, don’t let anyone tell you this win did not matter.
It did.
The Bruins beat a top-10 team for the first time in 15 years with an interim head coach and no official coordinators.
Yeah, everyone online still joked that the Rose Bowl was empty and UCLA didn’t have enough fans to storm the field.
But maybe someday they could fill college football’s crown jewel. That’s the type of thing a win like this should let you believe – even for a week. Even if the Bruins end the season 1-11.
It is a pleasure to be able to really believe in things against all odds and, once in a while, see them come true.
Enjoy it.
Comments are closed.