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- Wayne Knight rushed for 177 yards and two touchdowns as UCLA amassed 369 rushing yards and 645 total yards in a 52-38 win over Purdue at the Rose Bowl.
- Nico Iamaleava passed for 276 yards and three touchdowns as UCLA improved to 3-0 to match its win total from last year.
- The UCLA defense struggled to hold back Ryan Browne and the Purdue offense, giving up 488 total yards.
UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy stressed that his offense needed to come out swinging Saturday against Purdue after going scoreless in the first half against San Diego State last weekend.
And the Bruins heeded the advice, scoring 21 first-quarter points before pulling away in the second half for a 52-38 win in their Big Ten opener Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.
UCLA improved to 3-0 and matched last season’s win total with its first 50-point game against a Power Four program since November 2022. Bob Chesney joined Terry Donahue and Jim Mora as the only coaches to start their UCLA tenures 3-0.
In a bid to pack the Rose Bowl and Pauley Pavilion, tickets to all UCLA home football and men’s and women’s basketball games will be free for Bruins students.
Fifth-year tailback Wayne Knight spearheaded the offensive outburst, rushing for 177 yards and two touchdowns for a Bruins team that had 369 yards and four touchdowns on the ground with an average of 7.7 yards per carry. Knight has eight touchdowns in three games, matching the most in Division I and the Bruins’ total rushing touchdowns last season.
“The biggest thing for us was to just put it all together,” Knight said. “And I think that we stepped up to that challenge — what we did on the ground, in the air. But the guys up front, no matter who is in there as guys are rotating all the time, whoever is in there is going to pull up front. They are working as a team.”
While Chesney made sure to acknowledge his running backs, with all three starters reaching the end zone, he made a point to recognize the man under center, highlighting senior quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s resiliency.
After throwing two interceptions and zero touchdown passes through the first two weeks of the season, Iamaleava completed 19 of 31 passes for 276 yards and three touchdowns Saturday while rushing for 55 yards. Iamaleava looked much more comfortable and confident in the pocket, despite playing through multiple injuries.
“Last week, I told you it wasn’t his greatest game,” Chesney said. “We watched him go out here today, and I think he was near perfect for a stretch in the beginning of that game, finding all kinds of different receivers and being able to carry the ball himself a little bit. And just what a warrior, because he was pretty nicked up out there in moments, and he just wanted to keep fighting.”
Iamaleava found security in senior wideout Semaj Morgan, who hauled in four passes for 72 yards and two touchdowns. In three years at Michigan, Morgan had just four touchdown catches. Fifth-year wide receiver Leland Smith caught three passes for 59 yards despite playing just one snap the previous two weeks, potentially giving Iamaleava and Kennedy a 6-foot-4 target to look to for the rest of the season.
James Madison transfer Landon Ellis, who returned to the field for the first time since going down with a head injury in the second half of the season opener, scored his first touchdown as a Bruin. And South Carolina transfer Brian Rowe Jr. caught two passes for 65 yards while being targeted eight times, including on a deep pass from Iamaleava in the end zone that bounced off Rowe’s chest.
Although UCLA turned in 645 yards of total offense, its defense struggled to hold back a Purdue team that lost its 19th consecutive conference game.
While the Bruins held San Diego State signal-caller Jayden Denegal to 45 passing yards, the secondary found itself facing a different beast in Boilermakers quarterback Ryan Browne, who completed 19 of 30 passes for 378 of Purdue’s 488 total yards, with a touchdown and an interception. Xavier Townsend had 162 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
“I felt like the pressure mounted a little bit and we were not as clean in our technique as we needed to be,” Chesney said. “We can’t put ourselves in panic mode, which might have hit us a little bit throughout today. But when we needed it the most, we were able to get a stop.”
Chesney said the defense has the personnel and ability to compete with anyone, but penalties and a fake punt that resulted in a first down enabled the Boilermakers to get within one score and added unnecessary pressure.
Fortunately for the UCLA secondary, linebacker Sammy Omosigho put the defense on his back.
Omosigho led the team in tackles with 12, but more important, he had two sacks and two forced fumbles. He has four forced fumbles in three games, tops in Division I.
“That’s his third game in a row forcing a fumble,” Chesney said. “There’s other things he’s going to want to clean up in there too and other schematic things that he can do better. But at the same point in time, the one play that stuck out to me was a running back, and it looked like he was going to go and get the edge, and Sam just put out one arm and just crumbled this kid with one arm. The strength he has, the poise he plays with, the toughness he plays with and the strength to be able to execute and finish on those tackles, are things that are pretty impressive.”
James Madison transfer Sahir West recovered both of Omosigho’s takeaways — the Boilermakers’ first two giveaways this season — and they set up UCLA touchdowns.
While Purdue (1-2) kept up with UCLA for most of the game, its hopes of a comeback ended when senior defensive back Rodrick Pleasant picked off Browne with less than six minutes left.
Despite the Bruins’ difficulty thriving on both sides of the ball during the same game, Chesney said he is confident in his team’s ability to compete.
“We heard the guys on defense saying ‘thanks for getting our back,’” Chesney said. “The offense struggled last week; we’re going to need them at some point. The defense is going to need that at some point, and then we’re all going to need the special teams at some point. We haven’t played the perfect complementary game yet, but there’s one in there and I’m looking forward to seeing that day because it exists. There’s fibers in here of a really high-level football team.”
