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PASADENA \u2014 The UCLA football team held its Spring Game on Saturday afternoon. Fans flocked to Pasadena\u2019s 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\u2019s roster was separated with \u201cWhite\u201d and \u201cBlue\u201d teams, making it difficult to decipher starters from reserves. Scoring was normal, apart from pre-quarter minigames that counted toward the scoreboard. UCLA women\u2019s 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.
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot from Brian Rowe,\u201d quarterback Nico Iamaleava said following the game. \u201cI think he opens up a lot of stuff, man, just him having the big catch radius he does.\u201d
Iamaleava led the White Team, playing most of Saturday\u2019s first half. He completed just three of his first nine pass attempts, but closed out his stint with a successful two-minute drill. Iamaleava\u2019s 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\u2019s offense under coordinator Dean Kennedy, who\u2019s set a goal of \u201c15-plus explosives per game.\u201d
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.
\u201cHe\u2019s physical, he\u2019s fast, he\u2019s smart,\u201d Chesney said of Omosigho afterward. \u201cHe 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\u2019s 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 \u2013 a one-on-one route-running competition \u2013 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\u2019s victory.
While the end of Saturday\u2019s spring game was dramatic, Chesney\u2019s greatest takeaway was his team\u2019s 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.
\u201cAll those things are things that I want to feel before we ever get a chance to come and play over here,” Chesney said. \u201cWe’ll do it again one, maybe two times in preseason as well, just so that we’re really, really comfortable with this place.\u201d
Chesney values trialing every minute aspect \u201cin fire\u201d to ensure the highest level of preparation before crunch time. That\u2019s why it was important for him to mimic a game atmosphere Saturday, rather than the gimmicky spring \u201cgames\u201d of recent seasons.
Regardless of the result, he accomplished what he set out to do, and what he\u2019s strived for all spring \u2013 to show the players at UCLA and its fans that \u201cit\u2019s a little bit different this time around.\u201d
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