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It was always going to be the Bruin Bullies’ day.
No. 9 UCLA was hosting a Michigan State team with one of the least productive offenses in the country led by freshman quarterback Kayd Coffman, who was taking his first college snaps after the Spartans’ top two quarterbacks were injured.
After forcing three turnovers and four sacks, UCLA trounced Michigan State 28-10 Saturday afternoon at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins improved to 7-0 for the first time since 2005 after winning just three games last season.
UCLA’s defense carried it after the offense was flat in the first half, dropping two passes, drawing drive-killing penalties and fumbling twice in Michigan State territory. Both fumbles were forced by Spartans safety Devin Vaught and returned 50-plus yards to the red zone.
The Cougars are stunned in double overtime by Central Florida and the Red Raiders are upended by Cincinnati. No. 11 Tennessee and No. 15 Iowa also lost.
“You just can’t do it if you want to win really close games,” UCLA coach Bob Chesney said. “We’re taking three, four touchdowns off the board by doing that. The holds, we’ll go back and look and see. The two drops can’t happen, and then ultimately the two fumbles are just a shame.”
While UCLA conceded a touchdown after the first giveaway, allowing Michigan State (2-6, 0-5) to score in two plays, the Bruins avenged the second fumble with an interception from linebacker Donavyn Pellot — the first pick of the senior’s career.
“He’s just a steady football player,” Chesney said. “You see him, his size, his explosiveness, his physicality, his toughness, his intelligence. All those things ring true for him. And then he was a quarterback at one point, so to get that ball in his hand and take off, I thought he did a really good job. He’s been waiting his time, and when he has his moments, he’s making the most out of them.”
The interception came after quarterback Ty Dieffenbach prevented a potential Michigan State touchdown on the preceding fumble recovery when he managed to contain Spartans linebacker Nikai Martinez on the return.
Chesney said Dieffenbach saved the Bruins 14 points by holding up Martinez.
“[I tried to] just get in front of them and hopefully delay them enough for someone to come hit them,” Dieffenbach said. “People don’t really want to see the quarterback do that. But for me, I’m doing whatever for the team, so I get in front of them, I’ll hit them if I have to. I tried to hit him, but it’s been a while since I made a tackle.”
Pellot’s 67-yard interception return set up a one-yard scoring run by Wayne Knight five plays later for his 13th touchdown of the season. The score gave UCLA a lead it would never relinquish.
Once the offense found its footing, it did not step off the gas.
The Bruins leaned heavily on their running game as they returned to usual form after being limited to 3.5 yards per carry and failing to surpass 150 yards the past two weeks. All three starting running backs reached the end zone for the third time this season, as UCLA finished with 245 rushing yards at 5.1 yards per carry.
Anthony Woods led the UCLA rushing attack with 112 yards and a touchdown in 14 carries. Knight went down with an injury late in the second half and did not return, but Chesney said the injury was not serious.
“He got hit in the side, his ribs, oblique, whatever you want to call it. Nothing in there that’s overly dangerous,” Chesney said. “He wanted to go back in and probably could have, we just didn’t want to do it. And I thought A. Woods was rolling today, and I thought he did a really good job.”
Wayne Knight is among the breakout stars on the 6-0 UCLA football team, but his journey to success with the No. 9 Bruins was far from easy.
The running game loosened up the Michigan State defense, and Dieffenbach took advantage of an already depleted secondary on the first drive of the second half, unloading a 63-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Brian Rowe Jr. for his first touchdown of the season.
Dieffenbach made the big play after sustaining an apparent leg injury on a hard hit late in the first half.
With the defense holding the Spartans to just 156 total yards of offense — 73 of which came in the fourth quarter with UCLA in control — Dieffenbach didn’t have to be perfect to secure the win. He completed 18 of 31 passes for 198 yards and a touchdown.
Although Chesney said UCLA could have been more aggressive in the passing game in the second half as the Spartans stacked the box to stop the run, the Bruins also wanted to run the clock.
“I missed a lot of throws today, and we had a couple of incompletions that we want back,” Dieffenbach said. “But I think once we put it all together with the pass game and the run game, I know we are going to be really scary. But we’re just going to take it day by day, keep getting those reps in practice, and get it all together.”
Defensively, UCLA refused to allow a forward push at the line of scrimmage, flying into the backfield and holding Michigan State to 1.6 yards per carry.
And when the Spartans tried to pass, the Bruins dug deeper, making it a nightmare for Coffman until Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald turned to fourth-string quarterback Leo Hannan. UCLA finished with four sacks, six tackles for a loss and five quarterback hurries, essentially living in the Spartans’ backfield.
The Bruins sealed their seventh consecutive victory with an interception from safety Malik Hartford, his second forced turnover of the game.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity,” Hartford said. “I just got to put my head down and work every day. And like I said earlier, I have a great group of guys around me, so my job is easy. I just got to go out there and play free.”
The UCLA defense was one of the team’s biggest liabilities during the past decade, stretching from the Chip Kelly era to last season’s three-win effort.
This season, UCLA hasn’t allowed an opponent to score more than 15 points since Sept. 19.
“We’re just all about winning, so we do whatever it takes to win,” said UCLA fifth-year linebacker Jalen Woods “Anybody who touches in between the white lines, anybody can help us to win. Whether you’re a first string, all the way to if you’re a freshman or third string. One goal we’re trying to reach is to become the best defense in the country, so that’s what we strive for.”
