Pasadena, CA- In one of their most dominant defensive performances on the season, the UCLA Bruins picked up a come from behind victory on Friday night vs. Iowa to secure UCLA head coach Deshaun Foster’s first career win at the Rose Bowl.
The Bruins put together a 17-point first half to propel them to a 20-17 win vs. the Hawkeyes.
Foster said the improvement from his team has been inspiring to him as a coach.
“It feels good. I got the game ball. These are way better than when I was playing. It’s way more exciting to get these game balls now. You can’t put it into words. It’s similar to when I got hired. But I’m a Bruin, and it was bothering me when we were losing. I’m not somebody that takes that lightly, and I just continued to push and push, and these guys never fought against me. There was never any turmoil on the team. They all just knew what we had to do, and I’m just glad I have a mature team who accepted the challenge.”
The Bruins out-rushed the Hawkeyes 211-80 as the Iowa defense had no response for what UCLA was doing on the ground.
Bruins running back TJ Harden had his best game of the season, running for a season-high 125 yards on 20 carries. It’s the first 100 yard performance of the season from Harden.
Harden said he knew that he was due for a big game vs. Iowa this week.
“Going into this game, I knew I had to have a game like this. We saw a few things from their defense and we had the opportunity to run the ball against them,” he said.
Foster, a former running back and running back coach himself, said that he’s seen massive improvements from the UCLA run game throughout each week of the season.
“More just executing. It’s been getting better each week. It wasn’t just all of a sudden we just came out there and it came together. It’s been getting better each week. I just think we had a little bit of juice, and they were fired up for the challenge. We went up against the No. 2 rushing offense in the country. I think they took pride in wanting to outrush them, and we did that,” Foster added.
It was an ugly start to the game as UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers threw back-to-back interceptions to start the game for the Bruins offense. Meanwhile, Iowa took advantage of both turnovers and quickly started the game with a 10-0 lead before the first quarter ended.
The Bruins would string together their most impressive quarter of play in the season when they scored on all but one drive in the second quarter to take the lead 17-10.
Iowa would struggle through the second half, putting up only one touchdown in the fourth quarter to tie the game, but a 27-yard field goal by Mateen Bhaghani would seal the deal as UCLA would hold on to survive.
With the win, UCLA now sits at 4-5, with three games left to play. With games coming up vs. USC and Fresno State, two teams who have been trending down in recent week, Foster could have a chance to lead UCLA to a bowl game in his first season at the helm after facing a 1-5 start to the season.
