In this season of college football, what started as a march to doom for the UCLA Bruins football program has turned into something magical and hopeful. With a couple of changes to the coaching staff, the Bruins have experienced an October turnaround that nobody on the outside world saw coming. They were massive underdogs to two Big Ten conference opponents and they somehow beat them both. Then, as favorites on their home field, the Bruins triumphed yet again in an amazing victory on Homecoming Night. How could this all be possible? The answer is simple yet complex at the same time. Apparently, a new mentality from an experienced head coach who took over after an awful non-conference record changed the entire momentum and energy of the team around. Along with the promotion of a longtime assistant to offensive coordinator, the UCLA football team has undergone an in-season positive transformation rarely seen in Division-1 college football as they went from having one of the worst records in all the country to being contenders for a potential conference title.

The decision to fire previous head coach Deshaun Foster was one not taken lightly by UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond, but it had to be done. After a 5-10 record through 15 games and two awful performances offensively and defensively in home games at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Foster was dismissed as leader of this team. At the same time of Foster’s firing, defensive assistant head coach Tim Skipper, who served as interim head coach at Fresno State last year, was named as the interim head coach for the rest of this season. With plenty of coaching experience in the college ranks, Skipper was taking over a team that needed a fresh mind of leadership heading into their second season competing in Big Ten conference play. The Bruins spent two weeks resetting themselves before their first conference game at Northwestern, which is playing in a temporary on-campus stadium while their venue is getting renovated. The Wildcats held off a UCLA comeback in the second half, with them winning 17-14 in spite of a great team effort by the Bruins in all aspects of the operation. At 0-4, UCLA was staring down a potential scenario to be winless for a while as they were set to host a team which nearly won the national championship in FBS football last year in the Penn State Nittany Lions, who were coming off a tough home defeat in double overtime to the Oregon Ducks. As a 20-plus point underdog, nobody expected the Bruins to outright win a Saturday afternoon home game in Pasadena, Calif. But the football gods had other plans and an exhilarating upset took place on the field of the Rose Bowl.

An opening drive TD led by the Bruins spring transfer portal quarterback Nico Iamaleava was made even more amazing when Tim Skipper decided to have the kicking unit run a surprise onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, with Bruins kicker Mateen Bhaghani kicking a surprise pooch kick over the required 10-yard limit and the Penn State defenders didn’t see it coming. A UCLA player recovered the ball and the offense got three more points on a field goal made by Bhaghani in stealing a possession from the mighty Nittany Lions offense, which would put up a mighty fight against the Bruins defense. As it turned out, after Penn State scored an opening drive TD, the amazing offense for UCLA scored on their ensuing three drives, featuring two TDs and an end of half field goal made by Bhaghani to give the Bruins a 27-7 lead at the half. That was amazing, but the Nittany Lions started cutting down the lead bit by bit in the second half. An opening drive fumble by their offense was the only mishap that Penn State really had offensively in the second half, as a missed field goal by Bhaghani led to a TD drive led by Heisman candidate QB Drew Allar. After a drive that ended in a couple of sacks on Iamaleava, the Bruins were set to punt, but a Nittany Lions defender in all-white threads blocked the punt by punter Will Karoll and the ball was returned by a defender named Liam Clifford into the end zone for a TD. So, now Penn State was down by 6 points with two consecutive TDs.

Nevertheless, the Bruins did not flinch as a massive run by Iamaleava for 52 yards set up a red zone campaign that ended with him running the ball in for a rushing TD. But the Nittany Lions clawed back with another strong drive that ended in the end zone. The tug-of-war offensively continued as the Bruins cracked the 40-point mark with another rushing TD by Nico and then a wise decision to attempt a two-point conversion occurred with Iamaleava finding wideout Kwazi Gilmer for a successful conversion. Now up by a more secure 14 points, UCLA saw Penn State score again with over four minutes left to go in the fourth quarter. With the margin at 7 points, the Bruins needed to find a way to close the Nittany Lions out. A poor decision to go for it on fourth and short in their territory and failing to convert could have cost the home team looking to win its first game after not being able to even hold a lead in their first four contests of the season. But the UCLA defense held its ground for the only time in the second half as a failed fourth and short run by Allar with 40 seconds left was a basic game-sealer. However, with all three of their timeouts, Penn State was not done yet. After stopping the Bruins offense on three straight plays and calling three consecutive timeouts, the Nittany Lions were set to receive the ball back. But instead of punting the ball immediately back to their opponent, the UCLA punting unit did another bold thing: run out as much time as possible by having the punter Karoll go to the back of the end zone and run out of bounds when a defender got near him for an intentional safety. That’s what happened and then a free kick occurred that gave the Penn State offense the ball with very little time left on the clock. After a couple of incomplete passes, there were only six seconds left and a lateral play occurred that failed to gain any significant yardage. The game was over and the UCLA Bruins had defeated the number-seven ranked team in the country on their home field. An unbelievable feat that was made possible due to some great coaching on the offensive side of the ball and a big-enough lead built so that the Nittany Lions could not fully overcome the deficit facing them.

Apparently, there were less than 40,000 fans in the stands at the hard-to-park-at Rose Bowl Stadium, but the Bruins fans there made it feel like twice that size in attendance. There was even a rare sight of some fans attempting to storm the field at the Rose Bowl after the game had ended, something commonly seen in other parts of the country in college football games when a big upset by the home team occurs but never in Southern California. Apparently, Sat, Oct 4, 2025 proved to be a slight exception in that regard. Overall, this offensive performance by the Bruins was made possible by Nico Iamaleava and all the pieces around him, including wideouts Kwazi Gilmer, Rico Flores Jr and Mikey Matthews and a three-headed monster at running back with Jalen Berger, Anthony Woods and Jaivian “Jet” Thomas. But the main man behind the operation was none other than new offensive playcaller Jerry Neuheisel, who finally took on that role after previous offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri was let go. Neuheisel had been an offensive assistant coach for several years at UCLA, where he was a backup QB in the years following his dad Rick’s departure from being the head coach of the team. With his family name already being respected and revered throughout the history of Bruins football, Jerry had his first moment of being in command of the offense and he did excellently in that role. He even led a locker room chant postgame of “It’s a Great Day To Be A Bruin!” It was indeed on the first Saturday of October, as an amazing first win of the season for UCLA against Penn State definitely turned heads. When you beat a potential national championship contender on your home field, you get everybody’s attention. And that’s what the Bruins did. Granted there was already negative attention on the football program of a school traditionally known for its success by its men’s basketball team and speculation on who the next head coach to lead the program could be. The next game for UCLA was a Big Ten road game against the Michigan State Spartans, a team that wasn’t elite but due to the home-field advantage being in a time zone three hours to the east of Los Angeles could be granted with the edge. However, that predicament would prove wrong, so very wrong.

The Spartans started out strong on Sat Oct. 11 with an opening drive TD following a Bruins three-and-out. But then after a modest field goal made by Bhaghani, a switch flicked as UCLA started regaining its offensive prowess from the prior week’s amazing takedown of Penn State. Wearing all white with their golden helmets, the Bruins started dominating offensively and defensively, with a foolish fourth down conversion try by Michigan State in their own territory leading to a touchdown run by former Spartans running back Jalen Berger, who was present to have his own homecoming on the assumed weekend of homecoming for his previous institution. Berger scored again at the beginning of the second quarter on a pass he caught from Iamaleava, who didn’t have to run for as many yards on this day. A fumble by the Michigan State QB Aidan Chiles would lead to another score for UCLA, with a TD pass by Iamaleava to Titus Mokiao-Atimalala increasing the lead to 17 points. In the third quarter, the Bruins offense put the game away with a couple of TD drives occurring after turnovers on downs, with a rushing TD by Jet Thomas and a passing TD to Berger(who had a proverbial hat trick) pretty much putting a rubber stamp on this game in East Lansing, Michigan. And the stamp was colored Bruins blue and gold with a 38-13 victory serving as an impressive encore to an offensive masterpiece the week before. Credit must also be given to the revitalized defense for UCLA due to a new coordinator replacing previous defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe. Kevin Coyle took over as new defensive coordinator and since then, the Bruins defense has returned to its powerful state of fortitude that it had been at for the previous few seasons under a revolving door of defensive coordinators. So, now at 2-4 and a 2-1 record in conference play. UCLA was going to play its Homecoming game and wear their retro powdered blue jerseys against the Maryland Terrapins, who are another eastern U.S program that haven’t seen the Bruins as much but will now be doing so every few years. What a conference realigned world we live in.

The game against Maryland had the Bruins favored by a few points(a feat well-deserved) and with an odd kickoff time of 4 pm Pacific Time, there would be the sunlight in the first half and dusk in the second half. The game started out very low-scoring on both sides, with the Terrapins offense having a long 18-play 88-yard and 8-minute long drive conclude with a chip shot field goal. So, it was a good defensive stand by the Bruins defense early on. On the next offensive drive, UCLA responded big time with a massive 55-yard TD run by running back Anthony Frias II, who was playing in place of the other Anthony RB on the team in Anthony Woods, who was inactive due to injury or some other factor. The Bruins took a 7-3 lead just like that, and it would stay that way for the rest of the half(spoiler alert). A bunch of punts in a row occurred, then the defense for UCLA forced a massive fumble after a fourth down conversion by Maryland in Bruin territory. Unfortunately, the offense could not turn that golden opportunity into points, as Nico Iamaleava threw a short pass heading towards tight end Hudson Habermehl(one of the football program’s longest-tenured players as a seventh-year senior), but the ball was picked off by a Terps defensive back named Jalen Huskey. The Maryland offense couldn’t do anything with roughly a minute left and the game went into halftime with a low-score reflecting the nature of this game. But the second half would be much more wild and unpredictable.

Following another sequence of four straight punts, the second half had a dull start to it until the Terrapins drove the ball deep into UCLA territory with a big completion by QB Malik Washington, who was unable to finish the drive as Maryland head coach Mike Locksley decided to have his team go for it on fourth and goal, but an incomplete pass in the end zone concluded the drive. But that missed opportunity turned into gold when Iamaleava was pressured on the next Bruins drive and threw an errant pass that was picked off by defensive back Jamare Glasker for an easy pick-6 score. The PAT made it a 10-7 Terps lead and Nico committed his first big turnover in a few weeks. This game was looking very typical of a UCLA football game, low-scoring and decided by a few big plays and mishaps by the team in powdered blue. The ensuing drive for the Bruins was empty as they had to punt again and to start the fourth quarter, Maryland went three-and-out again. The offense got the ball back at their 28-yard line, with a defensive holding foul on the Terps giving the team an easy first down early on. On the next play, Jalen Berger broke out for a massive run that had the ball in Maryland territory. But then the most insane thing happened, a flag was on the field for an illegal block in the back foul on Kwazi Gilmer. However, the replay angles showed that Gilmer barely touched the defender he was blocking and the defender did a classic flop move to draw the flag, which happened to be thrown by a female referee who was a part of the crew. Now, I don’t know her name, but she was wearing glasses and was African-American. Clearly, she made a bad call, something that happens with refs regardless of their gender or race. But it was a horrible call and the officiating crew should have picked the flag up. Instead, they didn’t and backed the Bruins up big time. The next play was a first down run by Iamaleava for 20 yards, but on the ensuing snap, Nico got strip sacked and a Terrapins defender recovered the ball. So, that phantom illegal block in the back foul did come back to haunt the Bruins, at least on this drive in not being able to get a potential go-ahead TD. An unfortunate situation there to say the least.

Thankfully, the Maryland offense went three-and-out again in being unable to capitalize off the turnover this time. UCLA received the ball back deep in their own territory, but were able to get into Terps territory with a good pass by Iamaleava to Titus Mokiao-Atimalala for 20 yards. The Bruins couldn’t pick up another first down and on fourth and two instead of going for it, Tim Skipper decided to have the field goal unit come onto the field to have Mateen Bhaghani try a long 56-yard attempt. Earlier in the game, the kicking unit was on the field to have Bhaghani try a long kick in the first quarter, but a delay of game penalty forced them out of comfortable range and instead the punting unit came on in the middle of the first quarter before any points had been scored. So, this was a huge kick by Bhaghani and unfortunately the ball sailed a bit left and short of the goalpost. This was another opportunity for the Maryland offense to take advantage of good field position and to extend their slim lead, but like most of the Terps drives in this game it ended in a punt. With under six minutes left, the UCLA offense needed to have their drive of the game and at least get a field goal to tie the score. But a touchdown was obviously the end goal and a couple of good passes by Iamaleava, including one on 4th and 10 to Gilmer that included a targeting foul with a helmet-to-helmet hit upheld by replay review, got the Bruins into scoring range fast. In the red zone, the drive concluded with a third down pass by Nico to Mikey Matthews, who caught the ball in the end zone for the go-ahead TD. After the made PAT by Bhaghani, UCLA had a 14-10 lead and the defense now had a chance to shut down the Maryland offense for good in this one.

On the second play of the ensuing Terps drive, Washington threw a pass that was deflected off the hands of one of his targets and the ball was picked off by Bruins defensive back Scooter Jackson, who led his teammates down to the opposite end zone to celebrate in style. Now with the ball back, the Jerry Neuheisel coordinated offense had a chance to end this game on their terms. But a false start penalty and a couple of ineffective plays left some time on the clock for the Maryland offense. After Locksley called one of his team’s three timeouts, on third down Iamaleava looked to escape and throw a pass. But he got his knee piled on by a Terrapins defender and went down to the field in pain. The entire Rose Bowl was silent as Nico had suffered a seemingly severe knee injury. The training staff and Neuheisel and Skipper were out to check on him. After a couple of minutes down on the field, the older Iamaleava got up and was helped off by one of his teammates and a trainer to the sidelines to be checked on in the injury tent. If the Bruins offense had to come back onto the field, there was a chance that backup QB Luke Duncan could have to come in to take some snaps. Duncan was getting ready on the sidelines just in case. UCLA got a few points off the interception as Bhaghani made a 42-yard field goal to make it a seven-point lead with roughly two minutes left. But Maryland still had a chance to tie the game on this next last-chance drive for their offense, which hadn’t managed to have a TD drive all game up to this point. But a couple of first downs after the two-minute timeout set the tone for a strong drive for the Terps offense. Malik Washington had a big run of 28 yards out of bounds deep into Bruins territory and then drew a foul for defensive holding to get a goal-to-go spot at the 8-yard line. Washington then threw a TD pass to wideout Jalil Farooq and the PAT was made to tie the game at 17. Now the Bruins needed to respond with a score or this game could have been headed to overtime.

In a twist of fate, Nico Iamaleava would actually find his way back onto the bench during the last Maryland drive and returned onto the field after that near-fatal injury scare. With under 40 seconds left, he needed to lead the offense into field goal range and with one timeout remaining the Bruins had to be wise with time. A couple of big completions to Titus got the offense close to field goal range and then on the big play from the Terrapins 40-yard line, Iamaleava handed the ball off to Anthony Frias, who had his second big run of the game as he sprinted like a cannonball shot for a massive run into the red zone and was taken down for a 35-yard gain. Following that first down, Skipper let the clock run all the way down to four seconds left and the kicking unit came onto the field for Bhaghani to kick the likely game-winning field goal. After a timeout was taken by Mike Locksley to ice the kicker, the attempt was taken and Bhaghani drilled the kick through the uprights to give the Bruins the win. The game was over, an amazing third-straight win had been achieved by UCLA. Or so everyone thought. The refs actually put 2 seconds back onto the clock due to the kick play going so fast into the uprights there was still time to spare. So, the Bruins needed to kick the ball off to Maryland and stop a potential lateral play. That’s exactly what happened as a game-sealing tackle was made near the end zone and it was game over for good. UCLA had won its third straight game following an 0-4 start to the season. An amazing grinder of a game won by some clutch offense and powerful defense and stellar special teams play. In spite of throwing two interceptions(and committing three turnovers), Nico Iamaleava proved himself to be the kind of gritty QB that this program has been searching for years to find. It was great to see him come back after the near knee injury that looked pretty bad as well. The offensive pieces around Iamaleava were good again, with Anthony Frias being the unsung hero with his two big runs that combined for 90 yards of turf covered. The Bruins defense showed up to play as well, with the secondary being led by transfers Key Lawrence and Rodrick Pleasant and the front lines having a solid performance as well in stuffing the run.

This was a win that kept the Bruins at pace with the other 3-1 conference record teams in the Big Ten, which include Northwestern(having that important head-to-head advantage over UCLA), Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Oregon and USC(which lost in their annual game against Notre Dame on the same night). The 4-0 teams in the conference are the top-two teams in the most recent AP Poll as Ohio State and Indiana are numbers one and two respectively. And the crazy part is that the Bruins have a chance to be a part of the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis, Ind. Next week, they will make a visit to a venue south of Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indy as they will play against the Hoosiers in Bloomington in a Big Noon Saturday showdown. If the Bruins can win that game, then they will have the head-to-head edge over Indiana and their other true road game for the season is in the Horseshoe against Ohio State on Nov 15. Now it might a little big-headed to think that UCLA can win both of those games against top-tier conference teams on the road, but they already shocked the world once by beating Penn State, who was ranked number 7 at the time. Why can’t they do it again? At the very least, the Bruins are in contention for a bowl berth in needing three more wins to be bowl-eligible in 2025. They were only one win shy of a bowl game last season under Deshaun Foster, but with Tim Skipper at the helm that feat is more possible to reach now. The other opponents remaining on the regular season schedule for UCLA are home games against the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Washington Huskies, then the regular season finale of the Bell Game against USC at the L.A Coliseum. If the Bruins can win out in conference play and have the few opponents ahead of them who they either don’t play or already have played lose a couple of games, they might have a chance to play for a College Football Playoff bid. If they win the Big Ten championship game, it’s an automatic bid to the 12-team CFP, granted they would probably be the lowest/rated conference winner with four losses and could probably have to play a first-round home game at the Rose Bowl Stadium(which would cause logistical problems with the Rose Bowl Game on-tap for its traditional New Year’s Day date). So, the possibilities right now are endless as this UCLA Bruins football program has awakened from an early season hibernation and have shown no signs that they are going back to sleep anytime soon. This team has the fight, fight, fight within them to achieve many great things and to re-establish itself as a perennial power sooner rather than later. The doubters have their doubts, but the Bruins currently have the fortitude to prove them wrong.