The UCLA Bruins season debut under head coach Bob Chesney ended with a 45-24 blowout win against the California Golden Bears at the California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif. on Saturday.
Chesney and the Bruins were locked in a gritty battle over Tosh Lupoi's Golden Bears, but UCLA showed that they are no longer the same UCLA team from seasons past. Instead the Bruins battled and scored 21-consecutive points to win the game in a blowout. Here were five takeaways from their win.
Chesney had the Bruins ready
UCLA seemed ready to play and even controlled the game heading into the second half. However, when California tied the game up in the third, the Bruins continued to fight. They were held scoreless in the third, but as previously mentioned, dominated the Golden Bears
in the fourth with three touchdowns. Previous iterations of the Bruins probably would have lost this game, but this is the Chesney Era and the team has grit.
Three-headed rushing attack
The Bruins appear to have a three-headed running back tandem with seniors Anthony Woods, Jaivian Thomas and Wayne Knight. Woods led the team with 118 rushing yards on 8 carries with two touchdowns, but Knight beat him in the endzone with three touchdowns on eight carries for 71 rushing yards. Thomas didn't make it to the endzone, but put up a solid 41 yards on the ground over his five carries.
Creating pressure
The Bruins defensive line struggled to make life difficult on their opponents in 2025, but sophomore quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was never comfortable as the pass rush constantly made him move. Did they always stop him? No, but they consistently made life hard for him and they brought him down three times as well as senior defensive lineman Amier Washington recovering one of his fumbles.
Defensive turnovers
Speaking of turnovers, the Bruins defense turned Sagapolutele into a turnover machine in the fourth quarter as senior defensive back Ta'Shawn James picked him off twice. The first came off the fingers of senior wide receiver Ian Strong and the second was errant pass by Sagapolutele as he was on the run. The Bruins could have themselves a ballhawk in James, but either way, their defense appears to be in the turnover business this year which is a much-needed change from last season.
How were the captains?
Starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava put up 184 passing yards and an interception while notching 29 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground. The Bruins leader showed a lot of heart and grit, just like last season. Iamaleava ran on a scramble in the fourth and left the game afterwards due to an injury, but fought and returned to end the game.
On the defensive side, senior linebacker Sammy Omosigho led the Bruins in tackles with 14 total tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss. He was a menace to California's offense and seems to fit right in with defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler's vision of the the Bruins defense.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Five takeaways from Chesney's first win with UCLA
