Any conjured up suspense the Rose Bowl home crowd might have had regarding this one disappeared in way less than the first two minutes. After a 59 yard kick-off by North Carolina Central, Chip Kelly’s new freshman QB starter du jour Dante Moore completed a 67 yard TD pass to Senior WR Kam Brown to go up 7-0 with just 18 seconds off the clock. 47 seconds later UCLA’s Senior DL Laiatu Latu intercepted the Eagles pass on the third play of their drive leading to the Bruins’ second score 10 seconds later as Junior RB Carson Steele ran it into the end zone from just 1 yard out to go up 14-0, and the rout was on. After forcing North Carolina Central to punt on the seventh play of their next drive Moore would connect for another score six plays later, a 30 yard TD pass to J. Michael Sturdivant making it 21-0 with just half of the first quarter gone.
Bruin backup QB Collin Schlee would spell Moore after that and although only connecting on one of his four passing attempts rushed three times for 60 yards and two more TD’s to put UCLA up 35-0 with just over two minutes left in still the 1st Qtr. UCLA head coach Chip Kelly brought Moore back in one more time to lead what turned into a 13 play 76 yard drive to start the 2nd Qtr which resulted in an RJ Lopez 24 yard field goal to go up 38-0. But after that Moore’s day was over with Kelly wanting to save him for a much more intense struggle next week in their conference opener on the road against Utah. And even though the starting QB’s day was done UCLA still wasn’t done scoring in the first half as Junior backup QB Ethan Garbers came in half-way through the 2nd Qtr and after a 13 yard pass completion to Senior WR Kyle Ford, a run for no gain, and a UCLA False Start Penalty, handed the ball off to Sophomore RB TJ Harden who took it 62 yards to the house giving the Bruins a 45-0 lead going into the break—whew!
UCLA would tack on another 14 points in the 3rd Qtr before sitting everyone down up 59-0. The Eagles finally scored at the end of a seven minute, fourteen play, 56 yard drive on two Junior RB Chris Mosley runs from the UCLA 9 yard line and an Adrian Olivo extra point to eliminate the shut-out at 59-7. The wealth was certainly spread around the Bruin locker room in this one. In addition to the two Moore TD passes and Collin Schlee rushing scores UCLA would pick up four more on the ground by four different running backs. On the day the Bruins were 10-for-17 in the air for 2 TD’s and 1 interception and a staggering 404 yards on the ground in just 39 attempts, an average of over 10 yards per carry, while picking up 6 TD’s. Next up for the Bruins will be Utah on the road in Rice-Eccles Stadium where they haven’t won since 2015. Unless Ute’s head coach Kyle Whittingham is ready to dust off his starting QB, Cam Rising, who hasn’t played since tearing his ACL in the Rose Bowl game against Penn State in January of this year, that Bruin losing streak could be over.