Pasadena, CA- UCLA pulled off a historic upset, 42-37 with an interim coaching staff against No. 7 ranked Penn State whom had a 34-game winning streak over unranked opponents until today after playing at the Rose Bowl Stadium and kicking off Big 10 conference play for the Bruins with beginning and ending the game on unpredictable plays.
Nittany Lions appeared to start the game with an underestimating approach allowing a fast start alongside a bold and blatant message sent by the Bruins playing aggressive for the win.
“We were going to be super aggressive, but not do dumb things, UCLA interim head coach Tim Skipper said. “The plan was to score a touchdown first, we were going to go to it [onside kick]. A lot of film study, just watching those guys on kickoffs…It was a long study. We felt confident in it and it worked.”
UCLA’s in their four season losses, two of them highly unexpected versus Mountain West conference teams trailed each of those four games to start but went up 10-0 against a highly favored Penn State team underscoring dominance on present offense.
“Last night, I knew we had a chance,” UCLA assistant coach Jerry Neuheisel (offensive play-caller) said.” The way they were in our meetings, the way we had our offensive meeting,
the way they took to our team meeting. It was the most enthusiastic 0-4 team you’ve ever seen in your life. And all of a sudden you just get this delusional optimism where you think we might have a chance at this thing, and there’s this belief.”
Such belief continued to fuel the Bruins as they jumped out to a 27-7 halftime lead scoring on majority of their possessions for a total of 370 yards.
“When you play defense, it’s a reactionary thing,” UCLA redshirt senior defensive back Key Lawrence said. “It’s like the analogy when you put one pencil and you break it, but when you put a few
of them together and you try to snap them, they don’t break, because they all hold their own. We all believe in each other…We already knew our defense was still with it, but it was a great thing to see everyone collaborate like this. That’s the main thing right there, believing in one another.”
Penn State did not go away quietly as they seem believe this game was still in reach while perhaps grappling with residue from their disappointing double OT loss to Oregon last week as they opened the third quarter with a fumble by Luke Reynolds following a UCLA missed for the first time a 56-yard field goal, first and longest one of the game.
Momentum seems to shift inevitably for Penn State, while UCLA fought to sustain their lead with defense and on offense hold on to possessions long enough to convert them into scoring drives, including one initial questionable one-yard TD rush by UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava with three minutes left in third quarter, 34-21.
Bruins returned to their explosive offense from the first half after going scoreless most of the third quarter, out-gaining the Nittany Lions 446-357 in a game where they were predicted to be outscored by 24.5 points.
“Coach Skip was preaching to us to strain and start fast, Iamaleava said. “It was a lot of games where we could have started fast like that and felt better about the game. We’ve been coming from behind these last four games, and it felt great to get a lead.”
One more chance for Penn State came at the final two minutes mark after a fourth-down stop in UCLA territory, but UCLA returned the favor stopping Nittany Lions on their own nine-yard field line.
To seal the victory, UCLA called a shifty play with an intentional safety to run down the clock, leaving only 12 seconds for Penn State to consider throwing hail mary at the end zone from its own territory. Just as stunned as Penn State seem from an early on side kick by UCLA they were yet again surprised by the safety, as the game clock wind down a good five seconds before the defense reacted and reached the Bruin punter.
“We were going to take that safety because we are up seven, coach Skipper said. “We knew they were going to try and hold us up, so if they are holding us up then we are going to have more time to eat up the clock. I believe it was eight seconds we took off – doing the safety. That was huge.”
With a huge win under their belt, UCLA(1-4) will be able to continue believing and building off what their former coach, recently fired DeShaun Foster said he saw and believed during his final postgame press conference, an undisciplined team with great potential that he knew could be better at executing consistently as they now seem to found discipline after Foster’s presumably swift exit and knocking down a top 10 conference opponent with an outstanding offensive output led by Iamaleava finishing with 166 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-24 passing plus 128 rushing yards and three rush touchdowns.
