Pasadena, CA – UCLA opened up a new era of Bruin football on Saturday afternoon as they hosted Indiana in their inaugural Big Ten conference game. However, the Hoosiers played the spoiler in their 42-13 drubbing over the Bruins at the Rose Bowl.
UCLA head coach Deshaun Foster said the loss felt personal in his home coaching debut.
“This hurts, I’m a Bruin through and through,” Foster said. “I don’t want to get emotional, but it hurts. That’s not acceptable and we’re gonna fix it.”
The UCLA offense sputtered all game long as they couldn’t get in sync after quarterback Ethan Garbers fumbled on the Bruins first play from scrimmage.
A self-inflicted wound that just can’t happen, especially on the first play of the game,” Garbers added.
Garbers finished the game 14 for 23 with 137 yards through the air and one interception as the Bruins pass attack was relatively non-existent.
“At the end of the day, it just comes down to execution and we just didn’t do it tonight,” Garbers confessed.
Foster reiterated that the Bruins have to stay ahead of the chains if they want to be successful on offense
“Offensively, we have to learn to stay ahead of the chains,” Foster said. “It’s a learning experience for both sides of the ball and we have to continue to improve.”
Despite having talented junior TJ Harden in the backfield, the Bruins once again struggled to run the ball effectively. Harden rushed for just 48 yards on 12 carries as UCLA’s offensive line struggled to get a push upfront.
I know it’s going to get repetitive, but we are just not executing.” Foster admitted. “I would want to say some other things. I would like to tell you guys something else. But i’d be lying. We’re executing at practice, but it is not carrying over to the game.”
The Hoosiers offense was rolling coming into this game after dropping over 70 points last week in their win. After starting the game with back-to-back touchdown drives, it was apparent that Indiana’s offense wasn’t going to show any signs of cooling down.
The Hoosiers’ quarterback Kurtis Rourke was surgical in the rout over the Bruins. He threw for 307 yards and four touchdowns as the Bruins secondary struggled.
Foster was honest about the unit’s performance.
“It wasn’t really what we would like. Guys didn’t really execute. We have got to get in there and watch the film and find a way to get guys to execute. But you can’t make any excuses. We lined up and got beat.”
The Bruins scored their only touchdown late in the second quarter when Harden walked into the end zone from one yard out.
In the second half, UCLA couldn’t finish drives and instead settled for two field goals after drives of 9 and 11 plays long stalled out in Hoosiers territory.
Meanwhile the Indiana offense tacked on another three touchdowns in the second half to seal the deal.
With the loss the Bruins will fall to 1-1 as UCLA moves into the toughest part of their schedule, starting next Saturday at LSU followed up with games against Oregon and Penn State.
