Pasadena, CA- UCLA football continues to have an unprecedented season ranked as No. 12 and winning their first six games after a 17-7 victory over Wisconsin at home in the Rose Bowl Stadium. UCLA improved to 4-0 in Big Ten play, remaining as the only undefeated team in their conference as well as out of the SEC.
Despite losing their starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava for the rest of the season including the second half of last week’s game versus Oregon Ducks, the Bruins bounced back to secure a battle-tested win again helmed by backup quarterback and today’s game starter, Ty Dieffenbach, whom completed 22 of 33 passes for 264 yards.
“Overall, it was just a battle,” UCLA head football coach Bob Chesney said. “These guys came to play. Obviously, from Wisconsin, hats off to them and their coaches…Ty, like what a job. Really, really good job. To stand in there and have the confidence that he did.”
In Dieffenbach first FBS start, his team defense ease some of that pressure by holding Wisconsin’s starting quarterback to only 66 yards passing.
“That quarterback is tough to tackle, I think people all saw that and understood how good he is, but I love our defensive did today,” coach Chesney said. “We have opportunities to come up with an interception or two and came up a little short, but to hold them to just 66 yards passing is a pretty big deal.”
While the Badgers struggled in the air, Bruins bread n butter defense made cheese curd out of their team’s offense set by a statement defensive stop on UCLA’s 10-yard line to kickoff Dieffenbach’s Rose Bowl debut. From there, the Calabasas, Calif native and younger brother of UCLA alumni, orchestrated a 16-play, 84-yard drive, for a 24-yard Mateen Bhaghani’s field goal, 3-0 first quarter lead.
“I sensed that, if it’s an indication that you play how you practice, yes I did [expected Ty to play well],” coach Chesney said. “We’re confident in him, and we felt like he could have this type of game. He sees the game well, he throws a nice football, he’s on time, he’s accurate. Really that one for Landon [Ellis] from his own end zone, that was the one that ultimately helped him put a 97-yard drive together. We needed it at that point in the clutch.”
Dieffenbach connected with multiple targets and Semaj Morgan benefited the most, receiving five passes for a career-high 84 yards. Showing UCLA’s depth on both sides, the offense shifted the heavy loading from their offensive backs, whom still sprinkled on their seasoning with two touchdowns from Wayne Knight and Anthony Woods, respectively. Knight ran for his 11th touchdown and became the only other Bruins besides Maurice Drew Jones to score a touchdown in all of their first six games.
“Obviously, we have had some good games thus far. But when we came, whether chose to stay here or to transfer here, our new coaching staff came in, no one sat down and say, ‘Hey, we want to go 6-0.’ So we said that we wanted to win a Big Ten championship,” UCLA sophomore linebacker Scott Taylor said to fi360 News. “Our journey does not stop here, and we want to be on the rise. There is obviously some stuff that we want to clean up today. We want to get better, knowing that we have a lot of football to play down the road.”
As Bruins build off their momentum from causing the Badgers to fall 4-2 with season lows in points and total offense yards, Badgers will be back to the drawing board after senior quarterback Colton Joseph did more on the ground than expected from gallant passer, scrambling 18 times for 71 yards and one touchdown. He completed only six of 16 passes for 66 yards.
Wisconsin could not get over midfield until its last drive in the first half. Reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week Jalen Woods made a third down sack and game-high eight total tackles that shoved the Badgers out of their field-goal range as Gavin Lahm’s 46-yard attempt sailed wide right, giving UCLA 10-0 advantage at halftime.
UCLA went a little too fancy to open the second half and Wisconsin made them pay for their expensive taste with scoring early their first points of the game in the third quarter. Badgers’ Joseph ran for three yards in a quarterback keep after a combined sequence of a 11 rushing plays, 10-7 UCLA.
Opening the fourth quarter, Dieffenbach found UCLA senior wide receiver Landon Ellis for 28-yard gain to exit out of their end zone and ignite a four play sequence into the red zone. After Woods’ couple of carries resulted into a touchdown followed by a field goal, UCLA’s lead was back to 10, 17-7.
“I think we proved it to ourselves,” Ellis said. “I think people look at our schedule and say we haven’t played the greatest teams before last week. That was a big momentum win [at Oregon] for us. We still got a lot of work to do. We left a lot out there tonight, but we’re still going to keep going out there and going to work, proving it to ourselves.”
UCLA’s defense upheld their lead and win streak while withholding Wisconsin to only 29 yards in the final minutes of action. Bruins benefitted from not only playing in front of their home crowd and having undeniable belief by their Head Coach that continues to show up in how his team sustains their composure along with competitiveness to pull out another tough win.
UCLA returns to Rose Bowl for its second game of its homestead on Saturday, Oct. 24 versus Big Ten opponent, Michigan State. Kickoff is around noon or 12:30 p.m. PT.