UCLA's Head Coach Says 'We Were Close' After Losing 43-10
Bruins managed just 220 yards of offense while giving up 492 yards to Utes at Rose Bowl
The UCLA Bruins entered the 2025 season with elevated expectations. After several years of mediocrity, UCLA and head coach DeShaun Foster brought in top quarterback transfer Nico Iamaleava to rejuvenate the program and help bring the Bruins back to relevance.
Iamaleava's success with the Tennessee Volunteers was expected to help push UCLA's offense forward, especially in the highly competitive Big Ten. UCLA put those hopes to the test in Week 1 with a game at the Rose Bowl against an old Pac-12 rival, the Utah Utes.
It did not go well.
Utah jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. It was 23-7 at halftime and 30-10 at the end of the third quarter, with a 43-10 final. It wasn’t even that close. The Bruins allowed 492 yards and gained just 220. UCLA ran 50 plays to Utah’s 80. The Utes dominated time of possession behind a relentless rushing attack that gained 286 yards.
In no statistical category was UCLA close to Utah. Offense, defense, and turnovers—Utah dominated all of it. So what did UCLA’s head coach tell the media after watching the film?
"That we were close," Foster said this week. "There’s a lot of things that we can actually fix," he continued, "so that’s the bright spot that I saw on that [film] and talking to the team, I can tell that they were ready to hear those things, and they saw the same thing too."
Okay then.
Aug 30, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9) following the loss against the Utah Utes during the second half at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
UCLA Bruins Have Lots Of Work To Do, Not Much Time To Do it
For perspective on how badly UCLA was beaten, consider "net success rate," the difference in how effectively the two teams moved the ball down the field. Teams that do well on offense and limit success on defense show the biggest gaps.
The largest gap in any game was the USC Trojans’ 73-13 demolition of Missouri State. Ole Miss and Georgia also thoroughly dominated overmatched opponents. TCU's rude welcome to Bill Belichick and UNC was up there, too. And sitting sixth among major FBS games: Utah’s win over UCLA.
Effectively, Utah treated UCLA like a lower-level FBS program. That’s with Nico Iamaleava at quarterback. They were not close.
For UCLA fans, this is part of the years of frustration with the lack of progress; there seems to be little awareness of where UCLA currently sits in the college football hierarchy. After the Chip Kelly hire didn't work out, UCLA aimed lower at head coach, choosing Foster to lead the program seemingly because of his success as a Bruin decades ago.
There's little excitement or enthusiasm around the program, as evidenced by an anemic 35,000 announced attendance figure at the Rose Bowl. This isn't close to competing, it's close to falling further into irrelevance. Hopefully Foster actually understands that, public comments aside.