This post was updated Nov. 19 at 12:24 a.m.
UCLA football (3-7, 3-4 Big Ten) got pummeled 48-10 by No. 1 Ohio State (10-0, 7-0) in Columbus, Ohio, in front of 104,168 spectators at Ohio Stadium and a national TV audience. Daily Bruin Sports senior staffer Kai Dizon shares five takeaways after the Bruins got saddled, cementing their second three-game losing streak of the season.
Is it over yet?
No, the Bruins never had a chance.
And once redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava – at times, the only thing that made UCLA football bearable to watch – was ruled out with a concussion, any hope of an upset was effectively reduced to nothing.
“Up and down” doesn’t do the Bruins’ season justice.
At 0-4, it seemed like UCLA would never win a game.
At 3-4, it seemed like the Bruins could somehow make a bowl game.
But the Bruins are back to .500 over their past six games.
People have been saying it ever since word got out that UCLA would leave the Pac-12. But it seems impossible that the Bruins will ever make headway in the Big Ten.
Over the past two seasons, UCLA has lost to essentially every notable conference opponent it’s played – Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, USC and Indiana.
The Bruins have two games left.
Best case, UCLA finds a way to beat Washington – in what could be its final regular-season home game at the Rose Bowl – and upsets No. 16 USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to end up with the record it finished last season with.
But no, that won’t happen.
It’s funny how the present can make you look at the past.
Just about a month removed from their win streak, it’s unclear if the Bruins ever beat a good football team.
Penn State, Michigan State and Maryland are 1-11 since losing to UCLA – and that lone win is because the Nittany Lions beat the Spartans.
Worst case, the Bruins finish the year at 3-9, and all of a sudden, the Bruins’ best three seasons of the past 10 years belong to the Chip Kelly era.
Same song and dance
The Bruins held the Buckeyes to 146 yards in the second half after allowing 294 through the first two quarters Saturday.
The Bruins held the Cornhuskers to seven points in the second half after allowing 21 in the first two quarters Nov. 8.
The Bruins blanked the Wildcats in the second half after they scored 17 through the first two quarters Sept. 27.
And the Bruins held the Rebels to a touchdown in the second half after allowing 23 points through the first two quarters Sept. 6.
But it’s impossible to win a fight once you’re already dead.
UCLA trailed Ohio State 27-0 after the first 30 minutes.
UCLA trailed Nebraska 21-7.
UCLA trailed Northwestern 17-3.
UCLA trailed UNLV 23-3.
The Bruin defense has been able to make adjustments, but it has always seemed too little, too late.
Interim head coach Tim Skipper has constantly preached the importance of starting fast, and every time the defense hasn’t been able to do that, the game has ended in disaster – not that the offense is doing any better, mind you.
Driving with a boot
UCLA was called for seven penalties Saturday.
It’s been a theme all season. The Bruins tie for the sixth-most penalized team in the nation – averaging 7.8 per contest.
Skipper has been able to do a lot in his short time at the Bruins’ helm, but the team’s inability to rectify all the seemingly simple mistakes remains puzzling.
On offense, UCLA was saddled with three false starts, one unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a delay of the game in some twisted football rendition of the 12 days of Christmas.
It’s puzzling.
It’s a problem that has persisted over three seasons under three different coaches.
In DeShaun Foster’s rookie head coaching campaign, UCLA tied for the sixth-most penalized team in the FBS.
In Kelly’s final year in Pasadena, the Bruins were also sixth on the list.
The Bruins might as well be wearing a wheel clamp on all their drives.
No Nico
It’s not exactly fair to judge redshirt sophomore quarterback Luke Duncan after one game – his first career start – against the best defense in college football.
Duncan didn’t throw an interception and completed 69.6% of his 23 passes – and an offensive line that was missing starting right guard redshirt senior Garrett DiGiorgio managed to keep its signal-caller upright.
The redshirt sophomore finished with 154 passing yards but completed just three passes over 15 yards. But even then, the numbers seem misleading.
Duncan’s 51-yard pass to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. only went for about 15 yards in the air. His 18-yard completion to sophomore wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer only flew around 11 yards. And his 22-yard pass to redshirt senior running back Anthony Frias II was only an eight-yard throw.
It’s not surprising that the Bruins played ultraconservative with their rookie quarterback, but they were never going to shock the Buckeyes playing that way – especially with Duncan proving to be a statue in the pocket, not taking off once and the team rushing for just 68 yards.
If anything, Saturday just showed how dependent the Bruins’ offense was on Iamaleava. He can run, he can throw the ball deep, he can avoid pressure, he can make routine throws and he can improvise.
But just how much longer the Bruins have Iamaleava is unclear.
Anemoia
While it hasn’t made its way into Merriam-Webster or the Oxford English Dictionary, anemoia attempts to give a word to a person’s nostalgia for something they didn’t actually experience.
I never watched Dorian Thompson-Robinson play for the Bruins, but I miss the idea of a consistent year-to-year dual-threat presence at quarterback.
UCLA has now had six different quarterbacks record a start since Thompson-Robinson ran out of NCAA eligibility – and only Ethan Garbers has made starts in multiple seasons.
Iamaleava could be taken in the 2026 NFL Draft, and the Bruins may need to find a new starting quarterback on top of a new head coach, defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator.
It has become the modern reality of college football – and it’s worked wonders for programs like Indiana – but just how sustainable is finding a new starting field general every season? And how likely is UCLA to get another quarterback of Iamaleava’s caliber?
I also never watched Zach Charbonnet, but I wish the Bruins had a true RB1.
UCLA has had its back broken numerous times this season by a single running back – New Mexico’s Damon Bankston ran for 154 yards, Northwestern’s Caleb Komolafe ran for 119, Nebraska’s Emmett Johnson ran for 129 and Ohio State’s Bo Jackson ran for 112.
The Bruins’ four-man rotation – or five-man if you count redshirt freshman Troy Leigber who ran for 21 yards Saturday – isn’t bad. It just feels like one great running back would be better than three or four solid ones.
Everyone seems to look back at the Kelly era with contempt.
But in many ways, as crazy as it sounds, it doesn’t seem so terrible looking back.
Comments are closed.