One glorious afternoon at the Rose Bowl isn’t enough.
That’s why after they fielded the congratulatory phone calls and text messages, made a celebratory champagne toast and smiled while rewatching game footage for the first time this season, UCLA players and coaches eagerly resumed the pursuit of something more.
“We don’t want to be one-hit wonders,” interim coach Tim Skipper said Monday, “that’s the whole key to this thing — do not be a one-hit wonder, get back to work.”
While beating Michigan State on Saturday at Spartan Stadium wouldn’t generate the same recognition that came with the previously winless Bruins’ recent victory over then-No. 7 Penn State, it would erase any lingering doubts that things just fell into place one wonderful weekend.
UCLA (1-4 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) hopes it discovered a winning formula beyond Jerry Neuheisel’s playcalling, quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s heroics and Skipper’s putting everything together. After seeing his team look listless the previous week against Northwestern, particularly in the game’s early going, Skipper adopted the word “strain” as a rallying cry going into the game against the Nittany Lions.
“It’s just draining your tank and doing everything possible that you can possibly do on every single play for us to achieve success,” Skipper said. “So, strain was mentioned every single day, it was mentioned after the game, and I think that was the major difference. Our guys strained, from the opening kickoff to the very end of the game. We had to strain on every play to get the game to be a positive outcome for us.”
It was favorable for everyone on the team, including position groups that had previously struggled.
Not long after the Bruins held off the Nittany Lions for an epic 42-37 triumph, UCLA offensive line coach Andy Kwon gathered his players for a group photo in the end zone. Kwon posted the photo on the social media platform X, adding a one-word caption: “STRAIN!”
UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava passes against Penn State on Saturday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The word also was uttered twice during a short video in which athletic director Martin Jarmond delivered the game ball to Skipper.
Two days later, there was some further basking in UCLA’s first victory over a top-10 team since toppling Oregon in 2007. Skipper was named the Dodd Trophy coach of the week, Iamaleava the Associated Press national player of the week and Neuheisel the CBS Sports coordinator of the week.
More important, it was fun to be back in the football practice facility again.
“Smiling. Laughing. Talking,” Skipper said of the scene compared to previous weeks. “When you’re sore after a game, it actually feels pretty good, you know what I mean? Like, a lot of things, just the flow. People laugh at bad jokes now and stuff, you know? Just, man, just joy.”
Meanwhile, Penn State’s falling out of the national rankings was a reminder of how quickly a college football season can change.
The Bruins finally hope to have some stability going into the game against the Spartans (3-2, 0-2) after having installed a new defense one week and a new offense the next in the wake of multiple coaching changes. Skipper said Neuheisel’s ability to explain why he wanted to run plays in certain situations to counter what the defense was doing led to an offense that rolled up a season-high 435 yards of offense, including a season-high 269 on the ground.
“He explained it in a way that he was totally confident in what he was saying,” Skipper said. “And I think everybody felt that and believed in that, and it just carried over into the game.”
Those who fear UCLA’s offense might not be as effective now that there’s footage of what Neuheisel likes to do may not need to worry. Skipper said the playbook would be specifically tailored to each opponent because the team did not have spring practice or fall training camp to install its offense.
“We’re going to watch our opponents in all phases,” Skipper said, “and then we’re going to game plan for them, and then the things that work that we’ve done previously, we’re going to do, and the new things we have to do to establish the game plan the way we want it to go, we’re going to add that to the game plan. So we’re just a work in progress, man.”
One win down, the rest of the season to go.
He called it
UCLA cornerback Scooter Jackson had a feeling he would make the game’s biggest defensive play. All it took was Penn State running a shift his team had prepared for all week.
When he saw the familiar motion, Jackson announced what was going to happen to teammate Key Lawrence.
“We’re about to get out of here,” Jackson told Lawrence before surging into the backfield to sack quarterback Drew Allar on the Nittany Lions’ final drive into Bruins territory. “I’m about to end the game right now. Boom, I’d seen the motion come, shift, I knew exactly what play it was going to be. We ended it all.”
What did it feel like at that moment?
“Being able to make that play, being in my hometown, celebrating with my teammates — some of my closest friends,” said Jackson, a Compton native who played at Warren High, “it was an unexplainable feeling, I’m not going to even lie to you.”
A big turnaround 
UCLA defensive lineman Jacob Busic sacks Penn State quarterback Drew Allar Saturday at the Rose Bowl.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Edge rusher Jacob Busic said a huge component of UCLA’s defensive improvement was new de facto defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle understanding each player’s strengths.
It started at halftime of the game against Northwestern, when Coyle came into the locker room and pointed at players.
“He was like, ‘OK, I understand who you are. I understand who you are,’ ” Busic said. “ ‘This is what we do,’ and we held them scoreless in the second half. So he does a really good job at playing to our strengths and playing fast. And the less we think, the faster we play. The faster we play, the more tackles we get. The more tackles we get, the more likely it is that we win. He knows that, we know that and it’s just been a lot of fun.”
Playing a bigger role against Penn State with fellow edge rusher Anthony Jones sidelined by injury and Kechaun Bennett ineligible to play in the first half because of a targeting penalty against Northwestern, Busic logged a sack and an additional tackle for loss.
A big bump 
UCLA interim head coach Tim Skipper cheers on his team at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
As expected, Skipper received a hefty raise as part of his promotion to interim coach, according to documents reviewed by The Times as part of a public records request.
The contract that Skipper signed Sept. 16, two days after DeShaun Foster’s dismissal, called for him to make $875,000 over a roughly 3½-month period ending Dec. 31. Should the Bruins qualify for a bowl game, Skipper would receive a bonus of $20,000.
In his previous role as special assistant to the head coach, Skipper was making $10,416.66 per month – an amount that equated to an annual salary of $124,999.92 – on a contract set to expire Jan. 31, 2026.
Familiar environs
UCLA returned to Spaulding Field this week after a renovation project taking several months and costing $2.9 million provided the Bruins with a 100-yard grass practice field and two 25-yard artificial turf fields.