PASADENA – So where was everybody Saturday afternoon?
It was a gorgeous day, the view of the mountains from the Rose Bowl was as majestic as always, and the best football team in L.A. was doing what it normally does, winning.
Read more No. 9 UCLA football wakes up to put away Michigan State
If you are a UCLA football fan, or at least an alum or someone connected with the school, I understand if this success is throwing you for a loop. It’s been a while, after all.
But they’re 7-0, were ranked No. 9 in the AP poll before Saturday’s 28-10 victory over Michigan State, and likely will be higher when the new poll comes out Sunday. And Saturday’s announced attendance: 33,757.
Maybe I shouldn’t be puzzled. The benign neglect of the Chip Kelly era – a head coach who had no apparent interest in helping promote a program that sorely needed it – and the damage resulting from the hiring and subsequent firing of DeShaun Foster may still resonate among many in this community, even as Bob Chesney has turned things around both on the field and attitude-wise since taking over the program.
And yes, I get it. It’s easier, and cheaper, and a less stressful commute to head for your easy chair and watch these Bruins play on your living room big screen. In this community, as hard as it can be to get from one place to another even when traffic is (shudder) normal, it’s absolutely understandable.
But still …
This is no longer just an intriguing team. This is a good team, one that demonstrated a few things about bouncing back from adversity Saturday against a Michigan State team that recovered two UCLA fumbles in the first half – and returned each for 56 yards – but only turned one into a touchdown.
(Consider, too, that quarterback Ty Dieffenbach helped stop MSU’s Nikai Martinez on the second-quarter fumble, two plays later linebacker Donavyn Pellot intercepted a Kayd Coffman pass and returned it 67 yards, and three plays after that Wayne Knight scored to give UCLA the lead for good, 14-7. Resilient much?)
And after Chesney, interviewed at halftime on UCLA’s radio broadcast, called his team’s first half “bad football, man – really, really bad football,” these Bruins (5-0 in the Big Ten, 7-0 overall) wore down the Spartans (0-5, 2-6) in the second half.
Did the visitors’ record keep people away? There weren’t even that many in the stands wearing green, so maybe even Michigan State alumni decided to stay home, fearing what was in store.
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This really is a fun team to watch, and it’s one that seems to have grown in confidence with each passing week.
“I love the progression,” Chesney said. “I love their process. They do a really good job at that, and they don’t allow anything to over-inflate them or deflate them. They are consistent and steady with their work and the way they handle business. We’re gonna need a lot more of that for the rest of the season.
“… Whatever the challenge is, they step up for it. And I think that early wins, then a little bit of being exposed in some areas, allows them to focus right back in and be able to understand the urgency that goes into it, which is the same thing I would expect to see from the mistakes we made in the first half (Saturday) as we move forward on the offensive side of the ball. So I think we’re probably where we should be right now. The defense believes, the offense believes. We just gotta continue to elevate this and take it to the next level.”
Does any reluctance to embrace these Bruins have anything to do with a roster full of transfers? Here’s a news flash: Everybody in college football has a slew of transfers. Roster building has become a year-to-year challenge, and the new coach and his staff appear to have excelled in that challenge.
“Everybody that we brought in, we’re just all about winning,” said linebacker Jalen Woods, a fifth-year senior from St. John Bosco who started here in 2022 and has stayed, and thus understands how special this is. “Whether you’re first string all the way to … third string, if you can help to be successful on the field, you’re gonna be out there. So (it’s) just having everybody on one goal, and we all know what we’re trying to reach is to become the best defense in the country.”
And consistently winning strengthens that bond between teammates.
“I mean, I’ve been on teams where you don’t hang out with guys on defense,” Dieffenbach said. “I was going bowling with some of the linebackers, some of the defensive linemen, like we were always together. I think that’s one of the biggest things, biggest differences on this team and why we’re so close is that we hang out with each other. We’re not just isolated, we’re never disappearing within our offense or (the) defensive side of the ball.”
It is a team worth paying attention to. The next home game, Saturday against Nevada (3-4) of the Mountain West Conference, should be a victory. After that, UCLA has four games left – at Minnesota and at Michigan, and at the Rose Bowl against Illinois Nov. 13 and USC Nov. 28.
Read more High school football: Scores from Saturday’s Week 9 games
The advice from here? It’ll be worth checking out in person.