One glorious afternoon on the Rose Bowl isn’t sufficient.
That’s why after they fielded the congratulatory cellphone calls and textual content messages, made a celebratory champagne toast and smiled whereas rewatching sport footage for the primary time this season, UCLA gamers and coaches eagerly resumed the pursuit of one thing more.
“We don’t want to be one-hit wonders,” interim coach Tim Skipper stated Monday, “that’s the whole key to this thing — do not be a one-hit wonder, get back to work.”
While beating Michigan State on Saturday at Spartan Stadium wouldn’t generate the identical recognition that got here with the beforehand winless Bruins’ latest victory over then-No. 7 Penn State, it could erase any lingering doubts that issues simply fell into place one great weekend.
UCLA (1-4 total, 1-1 Big Ten) hopes it found a successful formulation past Jerry Neuheisel’s playcalling, quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s heroics and Skipper’s placing every thing collectively. After seeing his staff look listless the earlier week against Northwestern, significantly within the sport’s early going, Skipper adopted the phrase “strain” as a rallying cry going into the sport in opposition to the Nittany Lions.
“It’s just draining your tank and doing everything possible that you can possibly do on every single play for us to achieve success,” Skipper stated. “So, strain was mentioned every single day, it was mentioned after the game, and I think that was the major difference. Our guys strained, from the opening kickoff to the very end of the game. We had to strain on every play to get the game to be a positive outcome for us.”
It was favorable for everybody on the staff, together with place teams that had beforehand struggled.
Not lengthy after the Bruins held off the Nittany Lions for an epic 42-37 triumph, UCLA offensive line coach Andy Kwon gathered his gamers for a bunch photograph ultimately zone. Kwon posted the photograph on the social media platform X, including a one-word caption: “STRAIN!”
UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava passes in opposition to Penn State on Saturday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The phrase additionally was uttered twice throughout a brief video through which athletic director Martin Jarmond delivered the sport ball to Skipper.
Two days later, there was some additional basking in UCLA’s first victory over a top-10 staff since toppling Oregon in 2007. Skipper was named the Dodd Trophy coach of the week, Iamaleava the Associated Press nationwide participant of the week and Neuheisel the CBS Sports coordinator of the week.
More vital, it was enjoyable to be again within the football observe facility once more.
“Smiling. Laughing. Talking,” Skipper stated of the scene in comparison with earlier weeks. “When you’re sore after a game, it actually feels pretty good, you know what I mean? Like, a lot of things, just the flow. People laugh at bad jokes now and stuff, you know? Just, man, just joy.”
Meanwhile, Penn State’s falling out of the nationwide rankings was a reminder of how rapidly a university football season can change.
The Bruins lastly hope to have some stability going into the sport in opposition to the Spartans (3-2, 0-2) after having put in a brand new protection one week and a brand new offense the subsequent within the wake of a number of teaching modifications. Skipper stated Neuheisel’s skill to elucidate why he needed to run performs in sure conditions to counter what the protection was doing led to an offense that rolled up a season-high 435 yards of offense, together with a season-high 269 on the bottom.
“He explained it in a way that he was totally confident in what he was saying,” Skipper stated. “And I think everybody felt that and believed in that, and it just carried over into the game.”
Those who concern UCLA’s offense won’t be as efficient now that there’s footage of what Neuheisel likes to do could not want to fret. Skipper stated the playbook can be particularly tailor-made to every opponent as a result of the staff didn’t have spring observe or fall coaching camp to put in its offense.
“We’re going to watch our opponents in all phases,” Skipper stated, “and then we’re going to game plan for them, and then the things that work that we’ve done previously, we’re going to do, and the new things we have to do to establish the game plan the way we want it to go, we’re going to add that to the game plan. So we’re just a work in progress, man.”
One win down, the remainder of the season to go.