Pasadena, CA- UCLA unmatched in the fourth quarter of their first two games, on both sides of the field to earn wins, on the road and now at home, giving their new head coach, Bob Chesney, an impressive home debut for closing out games as they did against San Diego State at the Rose Bowl stadium after a scoreless first half.
“That is not the way we want to play football, especially in the first half,” Chesney said. “It wasn’t pretty but it was gritty. I was proud of our guys, and we found a way to win the game.”
The beauty of UCLA football is that they have two ugly wins after two pretty finishes with scoring 21 fourth quarter points, once at home and last week on the road.
Neither Aztecs or Bruins scored for 35:00 minutes of the game before transfer Wayne Knight finally put UCLA on the scoreboard first for an 8-yard rush touchdown as he slipped by the defense into the end zone.
“I think we all knew what he [Wayne Knight] was pretty capable of and I thought, again – you watch Wayne but let’s just talk a little bit about the offensive line in there as well you know from [the offensive line] pulling around on that one run it was violent at the point of attack like he was and then the receiver’s blocking on the outside,” Chesney said. “Wayne [Knight] doesn’t just score by himself, you know, he needs a whole lot of help and I think that those guys played a physical tough game up front which allowed him to have the success that he had and I think he’d be the first to say that.”
UCLA’s offense relied on their running backs heavily while missing key wide outs as Knight became the first and last Bruin to rush for touchdowns, matching his previous game total of three, to help offset their defense dominance in shutting down the Aztecs reputable rush game.
“Sometimes there’s just a hot hand that shows up and Wayne’s made the most of his opportunity,” Chesney said to fi360 News during postgame presser. “…but we’re going to need everybody. I think this is important to just keep in mind… you need as many as you can possibly have cuz it’s a long season and we’re playing against some pretty you know heavy hitters from the D line to the linebackers to the safeties that you know wear and tear on them pretty good. So it’s all together one game to set up the pass game. Yes. And then also distributing the ball through all sometimes somebody gets a little hot.”
Knight might’ve had the hot hands, continuing to fly by defenders across the goal line un wavered by any tackle attempts but his quarterback, Senior returning starter, Nico Iamaleava seemed to play at times with cold feet.
Iamaleava completed 14 of 22 passes for 151 and an interception plus a couple of poor play decisions that cost his team points or extra downs. Iamaleava warmed up his legs in second half finishing with 57 yards behind Knight’s 97 yards.
“I think just overall as a team, I think coach Chesney has built something special,” Iamaleava said to FI360News during postgame presser. “It feels good to have that support cast, from the defense and then obviously our running game has been great for us. I got to play you know way better, but yeah, it feels great to have a supportive cast that even if I don’t play the best, we can still pull out a win.”
UCLA tallied 365 yards on offense, consisting of 228 running yards and now totaling 10 rush touchdowns exceeding last season’s six in just two games.
“There’s never no doubt, you know, in a tough game like this and we didn’t play our best,” Knight said to fi360 News. “The confidence is always high. You always believe brother next to you. And I think that’s just a big part of this whole culture that we got here at UCLA.”
UCLA hasn’t figured out yet in two games how to start better, particularly having a scoreless half against a lower conference team as San Diego State but it doesn’t seem to matter much when you finish games strong with fourth quarter statements of figuring out how to put away teams.
Next up for the Bruins are their first league opponent matchup versus Purdue as they return to Rose Bowl.
