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PASADENA — The UCLA football team held its Spring Game on Saturday afternoon. Fans flocked to Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, tailgated outside the stadium and filled the seats next to the West sideline.
There, they had a view of the towering San Gabriel mountains and the first real action of Bruins football in the Bob Chesney era.
UCLA’s roster was separated with “White” and “Blue” teams, making it difficult to decipher starters from reserves. Scoring was normal, apart from pre-quarter minigames that counted toward the scoreboard. UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close and UCLA water polo coach Adam Wright helped call plays in the second half. Quarterbacks wore non-contact jerseys. Punts and kicks were executed without pressure.
With all those extraneous factors, everything should be taken with a grain of salt, but many players with already strong showings throughout spring camp continued to impress.
Wide receiver Brian Rowe Jr. hauled in a one-handed catch, turning a short drag route into a first down. His reception set up a 5-yard touchdown run from running back Anthony Woods, the first of the day.
“I’ve seen a lot from Brian Rowe,” quarterback Nico Iamaleava said following the game. “I think he opens up a lot of stuff, man, just him having the big catch radius he does.”
Iamaleava led the White Team, playing most of Saturday’s first half. He completed just three of his first nine pass attempts, but closed out his stint with a successful two-minute drill. Iamaleava’s best throw of the day came on a flea-flicker as he hit wide receiver Jackson Meehan in stride for a 37-yard gain. He also scrambled for 30 yards on that two-minute drill.
Plays like those are important for UCLA’s offense under coordinator Dean Kennedy, who’s set a goal of “15-plus explosives per game.”
The White team scored the first 10 offensive points as Mateo Orosco knocked in a 57-yard field goal.
Linebackers Sam Omosigho and Scott Taylor helped keep the Blue team close. Taylor had a sack and a timely tackle as Woods almost broke a run around the outside. Omosigho had multiple pass breakups and tackles for loss in the first half.
“He’s physical, he’s fast, he’s smart,” Chesney said of Omosigho afterward. “He does it with immense amounts of urgency. He stays positive no matter what. And he just relentlessly, you know, attacks it every single day.”
While the Blue team’s offense struggled, Madden Iamaleava and Michigan transfer Semaj Morgan connected for a pair of first-down receptions.
The score was 10-5 at halftime because the Blue team won the minigame – a one-on-one route-running competition – before the second quarter.
In the second half, with Close and Wright helping to call offensive plays, the Blue team made a comeback. JMU transfer wide receiver Landon Ellis scored a touchdown. Then the Blue team won another minigame, a blocking competition between the offensive and defensive lines, earning five more points to tie the game at 17. Freshman receiver Kenneth Moore III scored a touchdown on another explosive play to give the Blue team a 24-17 lead.
The White team had the opportunity to tie the game with a goal-to-go situation in the final seconds. With Close on the headset, Ty Dieffenbach overthrew Russell Weir, sealing the Blue team’s victory.
While the end of Saturday’s spring game was dramatic, Chesney’s greatest takeaway was his team’s increased understanding of the routine of a gameday.
The Bruins stayed overnight at a hotel in Pasadena, ate breakfast together, navigated morning traffic, and drilled a walkthrough on Spieker Field before kickoff.
“All those things are things that I want to feel before we ever get a chance to come and play over here,” Chesney said. “We’ll do it again one, maybe two times in preseason as well, just so that we’re really, really comfortable with this place.”
Chesney values trialing every minute aspect “in fire” to ensure the highest level of preparation before crunch time. That’s why it was important for him to mimic a game atmosphere Saturday, rather than the gimmicky spring “games” of recent seasons.
Regardless of the result, he accomplished what he set out to do, and what he’s strived for all spring – to show the players at UCLA and its fans that “it’s a little bit different this time around.”
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