It’s hard to wipe the smiles off the faces of the Bruins at the Wasserman Football Center.
Just three days after UCLA (1-4, 1-1 Big Ten) took down then-No. 7 Penn State at the Rose Bowl, the joyous energy across the newly renovated Spaulding Field was hard to ignore.
UCLA played the hits of accolades as the booming DJ’s tunes reverberated off the turf. Interim head coach Tim Skipper earned the Doyle Award’s Coach of the Week and Bear Bryant Coach of the Week honors, offensive play caller Jerry Neuheisel appeared as the lead story across dozens of websites and quarterback Nico Iamaleava has racked up five national awards, including being named the Walter Camp National Player of the Week for his heroic five-touchdown effort.
But one win only goes so far.
“We don’t want to be one-hit wonders,” Skipper said.
A trip to East Lansing to face Michigan State (3-2, 0-2) is steadily approaching, and UCLA is vying for another win to launch a true season turnaround after the Bruins built themselves a launching point with their upset victory.
While dreaming of a bowl berth is miles away — likely requiring another improbable event similar to Saturday’s game — Skipper and the Bruins have leaned on a word of choice: Strain.
“It just kind of came to me, watching our game against Northwestern,” Skipper said. “I didn’t like the way we started and how we finished some plays. … It’s just draining your tank and doing everything possible that you can possibly do on every single play for us to achieve success.”
His players took the message to heart. Scooter Jackson, the junior safety, grinned from cheek to cheek when reminiscing over his game-saving tackle for loss on Drew Allar on Saturday — forcing the turnover on downs that allowed UCLA to put away its 42-37 final score.
For Jackson, it all came back to the message that Skipper instilled in him, a greater belief in working 110%, straining, while other players on the field are only at 100%.
“The last play, what we did was strain and ‘do more,’ as the coaches would say,” Jackson said.
Jackson said that senior defensive analyst Kevin Coyle, whom Skipper hired after defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe departed the program, scouted the Nittany Lions to account for plays such as the fake jet sweep that Penn State ran with the game on the line. The Warren High alumnus said he expected the motion and executed the play because of his preparedness.
Jackson wasn’t the only Bruin giving Coyle his marbles.
Redshirt senior defensive lineman Jacob Busic said that the former Fresno State defensive coordinator had done a great job of assessing each Bruin for their strengths and weaknesses, pointing out a moment against Northwestern when Coyle entered the room for a halftime talk while trailing by 17.
“He came in, he was like, ‘Okay, I understand who you are. I understand who you are. This is what we do,’” Busic said. “We held them scoreless in the second half. So he does a really good job at playing to our strengths and playing fast.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Bruins, who will meet with the Spartans on Saturday.
But Busic, who started at defensive end and secured an 11-yard sack of Allar in the first quarter, said the connection that the team has built with Skipper and Coyle could be the catalyst for change in weeks to come.
“I think that trust that we’ve kind of built in that really, really short period of time just propelled us to that win,” Busic said.
