Somebody ought to test with SoFi Stadium to see if it rescinded its provide.
In what might have been UCLA’s last game at the Rose Bowl after 43 years of calling the place house, the Bruins unfurled the sort of displaying that nobody would ever need to relive or put in a scrapbook, a lot much less market as a part of a future plan.
If this was goodbye, it was a tragic sendoff.
There have been misplaced fumbles, a laughably unhealthy faux area aim that resulted in a landing for the opposite crew and a dropped cross that in all probability price UCLA its personal rating. And that was simply in the primary half.
Adding harm to insult, UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava took a crunching hit that sidelined him late in the third quarter, ending his gritty return from a concussion that had pressured him to miss his crew’s final sport.
UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava passes in the primary half towards Washington on Saturday night time.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
There’s mercifully just one sport left for the Bruins this season after a 48-14 loss to Washington on Saturday night time led to a fast-emptying stadium, no fond farewells in retailer for the house followers amid an introduced crowd of 38,201 that was too depleted by sport’s finish to boo.
The website of UCLA’s subsequent house sport stays as large of an unknown as its subsequent head coach. School officers have stated they’re nonetheless considering plans for the place the crew will play in the long run, although that call might be up to a court docket to resolve given the Bruins have practically twenty years left on a Rose Bowl lease that doesn’t expire till the summer time of 2044.
It’s believed that if faculty officers have their approach, they’ll move to SoFi Stadium in time for his or her 2026 season opener. UCLA defensive again Cole Martin, a local of Pasadena, didn’t appear completely satisfied about the potential of abandoning the Rose Bowl as his house stadium.
“The Rose Bowl means a lot to me,” stated Martin, whose interception in the second quarter was one in all solely a handful of massive performs for the Bruins. “It makes me emotional thinking about it. It’s everything to me, for sure.”
Wherever the Bruins play subsequent season, they’ve quite a lot of enhancements to make. They appeared torpid in falling behind 34-0 on Saturday whereas making one mistake after one other on the best way to a fourth consecutive defeat.
“We just couldn’t stop the bleeding, you know?” UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper stated.
By the time he entered the sport, there was little backup quarterback Luke Duncan might do besides make the ultimate rating barely extra palatable. He succeeded on that entrance, firing a 37-yard landing cross to Mikey Matthews late in the third quarter that helped UCLA (3-8 general, 3-5 Big Ten) keep away from a shutout.
There was one other spotlight for the Bruins early in the fourth quarter when Kanye Clark pressured a fumble on Washington’s punt return, permitting Jamir Benjamin to choose up the ball and run 13 yards for a landing.
But make no mistake: This was full domination by the Huskies (8-3, 5-3), who rolled up 426 yards of offense whereas holding the Bruins to 207 yards, together with simply 57 yards dashing.
Washington alumnus and comic Joel McHale carried out a brief recorded bit that was proven on the scoreboard earlier than the sport, however the actual slapstick was about to come.
The Bruins coughed up two fumbles in the primary half and would have misplaced a 3rd had the Huskies not been referred to as for defensive holding on the play, nullifying the turnover.
“Turnovers are always going to kill you,” Skipper stated, “so we’ve got to find a way to fix that as we get into next week.”
UCLA quarterback Luke Duncan throws in the course of the second half towards Washington on Saturday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
UCLA large receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala dropped what might have been a landing cross on the Huskies’ 38-yard line with nothing however open area in entrance of him.
But there was no blunder fairly like what occurred when the Bruins lined up for a 46-yard area aim late in the second quarter. Holder Cash Peterman took the snap and flipped the ball over his shoulder as kicker Mateen Bhaghani circled behind him, the ball hitting the turf as a substitute of Bhaghani’s arms.
Washington’s Alex McLaughlin picked up the ball and ran 59 yards for a landing that put the Huskies forward, 20-0.
Skipper stated the Huskies confirmed one look in their field-goal protection earlier than shifting out of it prior to the snap, inflicting chaos for the Bruins.
“The communication on our end got all jacked up when they stemmed out of it,” Skipper stated, “so I’ll take the heat for it — it was probably too complicated, it was too much communication and we miscommunicated and that’s what happened.”
Things by no means received appreciably higher, the Bruins left adrift with out a haven in sight.
