It was a Bruin win, it was a Bruin loss.
The Rose Bowl was a house divided Saturday.
Brothers fought brothers. Teammates wrestled and tackled. Coaches on the same staff shouted from opposite sidelines.
Self-inflicted setbacks and injuries were a theme of the UCLA football’s 3-9 campaign in 2025, but the Bruins’ fight against themselves in their first Rose Bowl appearance of 2026 was meant to strike a very different tone.
UCLA football’s blue team, spearheaded by freshman quarterback Madden Iamaleava, upset older brother – and presumed starting quarterback – redshirt sophomore Nico Iamaleava and UCLA’s white team 24-17 in coach Bob Chesney’s inaugural spring game.
“It was great,” Nico Iamaleava said. “Good seeing him (Madden Iamaleava) do his thing out there. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him play football. … The whole QB room did okay, so all of us are looking for some type of improvement.”
The affair – which featured two 15-minute quarters, two 10-minute quarters and skills competitions between receivers and defensive backs as well as between offensive and defensive linemen – marked the Bruins’ first scrimmage at the Rose Bowl since 2013.
Former head coach DeShaun Foster brought back an offseason Rose Bowl event with his Spring Showcases in 2024 and 2025 after UCLA’s head honcho from November 2017 to February 2024, Chip Kelly, either played a spring game at Drake Stadium or held regular practice at Spaulding Field to close out spring.
“We came here last night,” Chesney said. “To walk in here with all the lights on inside the stadium and the Rose Bowl logo lit up when you pulled in was something a lot of us hadn’t seen. … We understand the respect that this place deserves and understand the gratitude we should have for the ability to play here, and that was one of the most important things.”
Chesney may have also hoped to capture the magic of a national championship team when he had women’s basketball coach Cori Close and men’s water polo coach Adam Wright — winners of UCLA’s two most recent NCAA titles before beach volleyball took home the school’s No. 127 championship Sunday — put on headsets alongside offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy and defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler.
Chesney added that Close, whose program won its national title April 5, got in touch with Los Angeles Rams’ coach Sean McVay for tips.
“Coach Wright and coach Close came up with some of those plays,” Chesney said. “Coach Close even called coach McVay to help with some of the plays she wanted to run. She was reading me the text he sent, and we put some of those plays in so that she would be able to execute what she wanted to.”
Wright, meanwhile, led his men’s team to an NCAA crown Dec. 7 but stepped away from his head coaching role with the women’s water polo program because of health concerns, UCLA Athletics announced Dec. 29.
The latter fell to then-No. 3 seed USC 11-10 in the NCAA semifinals April 25.
Saturday may have looked like a poorly-rendered video game to the naked eye – the southern end zone was closed for construction, fans were limited to the west side of the venue, several players wore jerseys without numbers and coaches called plays while standing in the middle of the field.
But even if it looked a bit unorthodox, Chesney said it was the Bruins taking a step toward the top of the mountain, adding that the spring game was an opportunity for the team to practice its gameday routines.
“What’s it like to walk out through that tunnel?” Chesney said. “What do we do when we stay in the hotel? What time do we have to get up? What’s traffic like? All those things are things that I want to feel before we ever get a chance to come and play over here. We’ll do it again one, maybe two times in preseason as well, just so that we’re really, really comfortable with this place and feel that it is truly our home stadium.”
Madden Iamaleava connected with freshman wide receiver Kenneth Moore III for the game-winning touchdown – breaking the 17-17 tie – before redshirt freshman quarterback and Cal Poly transfer Ty Dieffenbach threw an incomplete pass on the white team’s last play.
“It’s awesome,” said redshirt sophomore defensive back Cole Martin. “Especially for him (Moore). First time in the Rose Bowl, first touchdown. As a college player, it’s awesome. … It doesn’t get better than that – being able to be a kid that grew up around this and be able to see my teammates get a piece of this amazing experience.”
Moore, a three-star recruit per 247 Sports and On3, earned an 89.33 Rivals industry ranking – the highest among the Bruins’ high school additions.
The wide receiver had his pursuit of a deep ball broken up earlier in the affair when he ran into a referee at midfield – sending both tumbling.
“All I can say is that was great defense,” Moore said. “I didn’t even see him. He was so stealthy.”
Though coaches have often said managing the academic quarter system can be tougher than the typical semester system, Chesney said Saturday that the Bruins’ longer spring quarter may mean the team won’t lose momentum.
“We have a chance to not throw all this away,” Chesney said. “We don’t really stop, we keep it moving. … The lessons learned have to continue to carry with us even though we’re in a different phase. … It’s got to be a constant climb every single day, and they certainly understand that.”
Comments are closed.