Are The UCLA Bruins currently the better football team in Los Angeles? If you told me two months ago that we’d be having this conversation, I would have questioned your sanity.
After Lincoln Riley’s statesmanlike opening press conference at BIG-10 media day, followed by two seismic performances – the Trojans first AP Top 15 triumph since 2017 over SEC perennial power LSU only to be encored with a comprehensive shutout of Utah State – the Trojan Family was dreaming of the college football playoff and beyond.
After DeShaun Foster’s “freeze heard around the world” at that same media day, followed by an uninspiring performance versus Group of Five Hawaii, only to get pummeled for four consecutive weeks in route to a five-game losing streak, left Bruin Nation wondering if UCLA was fit for the BIG-10 and whether Foster was qualified to be an FBS head coach.
Now, 60 days later, in an inexplicable turn of events, it seems the UCLA Bruins will finish 2024 with a greater resume, a more solidified culture, and increased positivity for the future, than their crosstown rivals.
How is this happening?
UCLA Bruins Offensive Trench Evolution
Through the first half of the season, the Bruins had one of the worst offensive lines in all of college football. There’s simply no other way to sugarcoat it. However, with Juan Castillo’s development tutelage coupled with Eric Bieniemy’s revised offensive approach, the Bruins have looked like a completely different offensive unit over their 3-game winning streak with a playbook exclusively predicated on decisive, two-read, three-stop drop passing plays.
But what’s taken the UCLA Bruins to an even greater level of trench legitimacy was outgaining Iowa on the ground, 211-80.
Also Read: Did UCLA Bruins Officially Become Big Ten Team With Win Over Iowa?
This was primarily due to Bieniemy’s adjustment in having quarterback Ethan Garbers more under center for run plays while running motion to the opposite side of the run blocking pulls, thereby leveraging an outside zone running scheme concept.
This led running back TJ Harden to have a season-high 125 yards on 20 carries with a robust 6.3 yards per carry.
Garbers’ nine total touchdowns over the past three weeks, coupled with this reinvigorated rushing attack, has given the UCLA Bruins an offensive balance that can keep the momentum flowing.
Defensive Trench Dominance
Through the challenges of UCLA’s losing streak, one element that slowly began to percolate was the emergence of the Bruin “fearsome foursome” within their front seven – Jay Toia, Femi Oladejo, Kain Medrano, and Carson Schwesinger.
Moving Oladejo from inside linebacker to edge rusher in the Penn State game was the most profound turning point in the Bruins season.
All four have bright NFL futures as their dominance culminated in holding Kaleb Johnson, Iowa’s star player and the BIG-10’s leading rusher to just 49 yards on 18 carries.
All told, this quartet combined for 26 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, two interceptions, and one forced fumble in holding a Hawkeye bunch averaging 233 yards on the ground, to a paltry, 80.
Front sevens and running games travel with you – resilient to weather, crowds, or passing game inconsistencies. With this dominant group, highlighted by Schwesinger, a former walk-on, current biomedical engineering major, reigning BIG-10 Defensive Player of the Week, and odds-on favorite to win conference Defensive Player of the Year, the Bruins have a legitimate chance to win out and end Foster’s inaugural season 7-5 with a bowl bid and sizeable momentum for 2025.
UCLA Bruins Culture Of Guts And Glee
This is probably the most impressive aspect of the 2024 UCLA Bruins. This team’s ability to stay together, encouraged and genuine in the face of a five-game losing streak, is the most definitive signal of Foster’s ability to build an enduringly powerful culture.
That enthusiasm was on center stage as the Bruins dominant performance against Iowa last Friday night, to the tune of 73 total plays versus the Hawkeyes 46, 37.5 time of possession minutes to Iowa’s 22.5, and 414 total yards against 265 by Kirk Ferentz’s squad. This was all the more impressive despite missing several key starters such as Maliki Matavao, J. Michael Sturdivant, Rico Flores Jr., and Niki Prongos.
Even Harden was questionable prior to his breakout performance, as was Logan Loya, who was nursing an injured ankle, but gutted his way to five receptions for 94 yards and a spectacular 29-yard touchdown that was the BIG-10 play of the week.
That level of commitment, despite being hurt or not playing for a college football playoff berth or not caring about redshirting status, is what will pay vast dividends for this program, not just this season but in the years to come.
Obviously, things can change in the blink of an eye in college football and Jayden Maiava may very well be Lincoln Riley’s next savior quarterback enabling a Trojan resurgence.
But for right now, the UCLA Bruins, after three consecutive victories as an underdog, two of which came on the road across multiple time zones, definitively has the culture, confidence, and coaching worthy of Los Angeles’ best college football team.
Who would’ve had that on their bingo card in September?