Game Day Guide: Nebraska at UCLA
Nebraska heads west with a very different reality than seven days ago: a new quarterback, a long-flight road test and the same defensive standard that has kept the Huskers in every game this fall.
Nebraska heads west with a very different reality than seven days ago: a new quarterback, a long-flight road test and the same defensive standard that has kept the Huskers in every game this fall. It is not about style points now. It is about whether Nebraska — at 6-3, 3-3 — can steady itself, get to the bye at 7-3 and give a true freshman quarterback a chance to grow without having to solve everything himself.
UCLA is 3-5 (3-2 in Big Ten play), refreshed from a bye and playing its best ball under interim head coach Tim Skipper. It is the first of two straight road games for Nebraska and it comes in a stadium that has mattered in this program’s history — good and bad — for 50 years.
This isn’t like last week. This is the opposite, in fact. No flair, just a true test on the road with a rookie QB in the Rose Bowl. No big deal.
Nebraska vs. UCLA
When: Saturday, Nov. 8 | 8 p.m. CT
Where: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif.
TV: Fox (Tim Brando, Devin Gardner, Josh Sims)
Radio: Huskers Radio Network (Kyle Crooks, Damon Benning, Jessica Coody)
Streaming audio: Huskers.com / Official Huskers App
Records: Nebraska 6-3 (3-3 B1G); UCLA 3-5 (3-2 B1G)
Series: tied 7-7 (UCLA leads 4-2 in Pasadena)
Last meeting: UCLA 27-20 (2024)
Setting the scene
Nebraska comes off a 21-17 loss to No. 23 USC — a game where the defense held the Trojans to 337 yards and just 135 passing yards — and lost its starting quarterback in the process. Dylan Raiola had surgery this week and will miss the remainder of the season.
Which means Saturday is all about TJ Lateef.
The true freshman makes his first college start in his home state. He is one of six Californians on the roster and the Huskers have now built a week of practice around what he does well without shrinking the playbook.
“Any time you’re going to undertake something big it’s nice to know that you don’t have to do it alone,” head coach Matt Rhule said. “When you feel like you’re doing something on your own, it puts tremendous pressure and strain but when you feel like you’re a part of a group that’s going to go do something it provides joy that you get to be a part of it.”
UCLA arrives having won three of its last four. The Bruins average better than 33 points per game during that stretch and rank first in the Big Ten and sixth nationally — 96% — in converting red zone trips into scores.
This has all the ingredients of a possession game and a patience game.
Rhule on the moment
On Raiola and Gottula:
“Everything went well. Gunnar Gottula got out of surgery yesterday as well. He was in good spirits, he was in the training room this morning. Both surgeries were successful, and we’re hoping and wishing those guys speedy recoveries.”
On this offense now belonging to Lateef:
“I want him to know I have so much confidence in him that I’m going to coach him like Dylan.”
On how this offense must adjust:
“They haven’t dumbed it down, man. He’s got checks, he’s got things built in, he’s got all kinds of things. It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re going to go play quarterback.’”
Storylines to remember
A California homecoming
Six Huskers were raised in California, including Emmett Johnson’s lead-blocking edge men and multiple defensive starters. There will be family everywhere. Nebraska has played in this stadium six times before. That part is not new.
What is new is handing the ball to a true freshman in this environment.
Emmett. Again.
Nebraska ranks seventh nationally in rushing yards per game — Johnson’s 111.3 — and UCLA gives up 195.5 per game and 5.16 per carry. Nebraska ran for 188 last week. This is as clear as it gets.
A run-first team. A run-friendly defense.
The answer? Feed 21.
Move the chains
The Bruins are allowing opponents to convert 55% on third down, which makes for last nationally.
Nebraska does not need flash here. Nebraska needs 2nd-and-4.
QB run on both sides
Lateef can run it. Nico Iamaleava can too. Iamaleava has 496 rushing yards, four TDs and 8.1 yards per carry.
“You give him any windows, he’ll take it,” outside linebackers coach Phil Simpson said during an appearance on Huskers Radio Network.
This is a leverage game for both lines.
Hold up up front
Elijah Pritchett and Turner Corcoran were full participants in practice this week. Nebraska needs every rep they can give.
Escape from L.A.?
The pregame tailgating scene was as good as I could hope for from a college football game, the stadium was not and the game, which looked like a certain massacre coming in, was surprisingly good. Somehow, 2007 Nebraska—losers of three straight and 4-4 on the season—led No. 17 Texas 17-9 entering the fourth quarter.
What the numbers say
128.3 — Nebraska ranks second nationally in passing yards allowed per game.
96 — UCLA converts 96 percent of red-zone trips into points.
1,199 — Johnson’s yards from scrimmage — one of six players nationally with 1,000+.
10 — Nebraska is one of just 10 FBS teams to hold its first nine opponents under 400 yards.
83 — USC had not been held under 150 passing yards in 83 games before last week.
Nebraska wants this to be boring. You know, first downs, leverage, stay in rhythm and get to the bye. UCLA wants explosives, empty grass lanes and Iamaleava in space.
Which do we get Saturday night? We’ll find out soon enough, live from the Rose Bowl under a California sunset.