No. 7 Penn State at UCLA
Had Penn State prevailed against Oregon in their White Out Game in Week-5 the trek to the Rose Bowl would have been the classic trap game. We all know that college football is an emotional momentum sport, much more so than the NFL whose players average six to seven years older—players who are able to withstand a devastating loss, put it behind them—and can bounce right back to have an outstanding game the very next week. Much more difficult for college teams. This may not have been the classic trap game, but the inability of the Nittany Lions to stop feeling like the world ended in Week-5 and ramp up to the importance of this match combined with the outstanding game planning of newly appointed offensive coordinator and game caller Jerry Neuheisel made for a moment in Bruin college football history that no-one who watched it will ever forget.
I expected Penn State would come out flat but was still mildly surprised that UCLA came down the field so easily on their first possession—including a 15 yard rush by Junior RB Javian Thomas and a 22 yard run by Sophomore QB Nico Iamaleava—to score a TD and take a 7-0 lead. But what got me on the edge of my seat and caught me and everybody else by surprise was the Chris Petersonesque successful onside kick that followed and led to a 10-0 lead seven plays later on a 24 yard field goal by their Junior Place Kicker Mateen Bhaghani. From there everybody in the Rose Bowl and watching on TV were off on an unbelievable college football adventure. I have to say that when Penn State came back down the field on their next possession to cut the lead by seven on a 13 yard TD run by their Senior RB Katron Allen I thought oh well—here we go—the destruction and humiliation begins. But UCLA would come right back down the field and start the 2nd Qtr with back-to-back TD’s on either side of a three-and-out, then force Penn State to turn the ball over on downs before finishing the half with another field goal and a 27-7 lead.
I have to admit even after all of that I still had some doubts and thought that after a come-to-Jesus halftime in the Penn State locker room the magic would be over and either the Nittany Lions would find a way to win it or the Bruins would find a way to lose it. When Penn State fumbled and lost the ball to start the third quarter I thought holy crap this is really happening. But then came the back-to-back Penn State TD’s, one on a 40 yard TD pass from Senior QB Drew Allar to Senior TE Khalil Dinkins to make it 27-14 and then after sacking Iamaleava twice and forcing a punt—it gets blocked and returned for a TD by Senior WR Liam Clifford to close it to within six points at 27-21 with a big portion of the third quarter left and all the fourth. At this point watching the game is just killing me. But in what might be Nico Iamaleava’s best game of his college career UCLA came right back down the field in eight plays, including a 52 yard run, before he eventually ran it into the end zone himself for his second rushing TD of the day to make it 34-21 Bruins at the end of three.
But with a whole quarter left to play the Nittany Lions are still just two TD’s and two extra points away from going ahead 35-34. That’s just 14 points for a team that came into the Rose Bowl a 24.5 point favorite—right! And sure enough Penn State came right back on a 10 play 75 yard drive and 2 yard TD run by Katron Allen to cut it to six, 34-28. But here comes the Bruins again on a 13 play drive that ate up 15 seconds shy of eight minutes including a 26 yard rush by Iamaleava and his third TD run into the end zone followed by a successful 2-point conversion to make it 42-28. Now, with less than seven minutes left Penn State is going to have to be perfect in addition to getting a lot of help from UCLA which they’ve been mostly reluctant to provide all game long. In spite of that they would come down in 2:30 and find the end zone on a 15 yard TD from Drew Allar to Senior WR Kyron Hudson to close the gap once again to a single possession—42-35. Just four plays later UCLA tries and fails to convert a 4th and 1 at their own 34 yard line and with two minutes still left on the clock I almost can’t watch the game thinking that the Bruins could still lose this one. But six plays later the Nittany Lions are in the same boat sitting 4th and 2 deep in the UCLA red zone with just 40 seconds left and end up losing three yards and having to give the ball back up. Penn State would use all of their timeouts on UCLA’s possession and after three plays the Bruins were sitting 4th and 11 at their own 11 yard line with 28 seconds left on the clock. UCLA would smartly use as much of that remaining time as they could on their 4th down play to back into and step out of the end zone giving the Nittany Lions two points on a safety to make it a 42-37 game but also giving the Bruins a free kick with just 17 seconds left. Three plays later with just six seconds left Allar would complete a pass for no gain to end it at their own 37 yard line. Wow-what a game—and what a historic win for UCLA!
Every one knows that the best way to keep a great QB from beating you is to keep him off the field. With that in mind the running game was a huge part of the strategy used by the Bruins to win this one and by the end UCLA had rushed 52 times for 280 yards and had possession of the ball 18+ minutes longer than Penn State. Sophomore QB Nico Iamaleava finally showed the college football world what all the fuss was about. He was stellar, connecting on 70% of his passes for 166 yards, 2 TD’s—1 each to Sophomore WR Kwazi Gilmer and another to Senior Titus Mokiao-Atimalala—and no interceptions while also rushing 16 times for another 128 yards and all three UCLA TD’s on the ground. For the Nittany Lions Senior QB Drew Allar connected on 19-of-26 for 200 yards and 2 TD’s—1 to the Senior WR Kyron Hudson and one to Senior TE Khalil Dinkins—and no interceptions while also rushing 11 times for 78 yards. On the ground Penn State collectively rushed 31 times for 157 yards with Kaytron Allen picking up both of the TD’s.
I think most of the experts thought that if Penn State was ever going to get over the hump and win another college football national championship—with their last being in 1986 under Jo Paterno—it would be this year. But now, with back-to-back conference losses, they’re really going to have to hustle to just get back into the hunt and will have to win out to have a chance. With having to face No. 1 Ohio State in the Shoe and No. 8 Indiana along with Iowa and Michigan State on the road all the folks who have bitched and moaned about James Franklin being unable to win the big one are going to be piling on and looking to get rid of a coach who has kept them relevant–taking them from 58th nationally his first year to 7th by his third year and finishing in the Top 15 the last two years. In spite of those who might want to dump Franklin there’s too much money required to get rid of him. The $20 million that now automatically goes to compensate Penn State athletes in addition to dollars provided by the Happy Valley Collective that go into NIL on top of the $50 million dollars it would take to buy Franklin out of his contract will no doubt keep him in place if he wants to stay. And quite frankly, who exactly are they going to get that can do a better job. You think they can lure Dan Lanning away from Oregon or get Nick Sabin or Urban Myer to come out of retirement? Guess what, all those coaches have lost games. Sabin, 20% of the time; Myer, 15% of the time, and Lanning who hasn’t been a head coach long enough to lose more has won 87% of the time, the same winning percentage as Kalen DeBoer at Alabama who has been a head coach for 10 years.
For the Bruins this win was a dream come true for Jerry Neuheisel and I would love to see him succeed in a big way over the next few years. I’m not sure how far the program will go this year and when I first saw their schedule I thought it might be one of the most difficult in college football. As a matter of fact when Pro Football Focus listed their hardest schedule rankings UCLA was in the Top-10. But that win and Jerry Neuheisel might be just the breath of fresh air that the Bruins need for a complete rejuvenation of their program. It certainly won’t hurt recruiting. Up next, Michigan State on the road and I doubt head coach Jonathan Smith will have any problems getting his guys motivated for that one.
Washington at Maryland
With the UCLA and Washington games on at the same time I recorded both but stayed with the UCLA game after the early TD and surprise on-side kick. But when I spooled this up, even though Maryland was undefeated and Washington was coming off that defeat in Husky Stadium to No. 1 Ohio State, I thought our Sophomore QB Demond Williams Jr., Junior WR Denzel Boston, and Senior RB Jonah Coleman would eat these guys up. But I couldn’t believe how poorly our offense was playing and the disconnect between Williams and Boston—missing wide open pass plays—a couple that could have gone all the way. It was frustrating and I was already wore out watching that UCLA game but the Huskies are my home team so what else could I do but suffer. And suffer I did, for about 41 minutes until the Washington Senior Place Kicker Grady Gross connected on a 36 yard field goal to put our first three points up on the board making it a 20-3 game. It seemed to wake up the entire team because the defense came out and held Maryland to a three-and-out to end the 3rd Qtr—their first of the game.
The 4th Qtr was just crazy as the Huskies came out and scored on back-to-back-to-back TD’s while holding the Terrapins to a couple of punts to take a 24-20 lead with just over three minutes left. I couldn’t believe it and neither could the fans at SECU Stadium—sold out for the first time in years—as Maryland took possession with over three minutes left and needing nothing less than a TD. But seven plays later after four Malik Washington incompletions and failing to convert a 4th and 8 at the Washington 43 the Terrapins had to turn the ball back over to Washington with about 1:30 left in the game. After Williams ran for a first down the Husky’s would run the clock for a win that might have saved their season.
For Washington, Sophomore QB Demond Williams-Jr would connect on 28-of-41 for 275 yards, 2 TD’s—1 to Junior WR Denzel Boston and the other to Freshman Dezmen Roebuck—and no interceptions while also rushing 14 times for 54 more yards. On the ground, the Huskies rushed 35 times for 118 yards with Senior RB Jonah Coleman the only one to find the end zone. For Maryland, Freshman QB Malik Washington was 30-of-49 for 219 yards, 1 TD to Junior TE AJ Syzmanski, and 1 pick while also rushing twice for their only TD on the ground. Collectively the team ran the ball 20 times for just 55 yards, held in check by the Husky run defense who worked hard all game long waiting for their offense who finally showed up. Washington heads back home to host Rutgers this coming Saturday.