The UCLA football team welcomed San Diego State to the Rose Bowl on Saturday evening for the Bruins' home opener, which UCLA won 28-10 to remain unbeaten.
After the game, Bruins head coach Bob Chesney spoke to the media about the play of QB Nico Iamaleava. The junior quarterback completed 14-of-22 passes for 151 yards and an interception. He also rushed 13 times for 57 yards.
“I'm sure Nico will be in here for you to talk to him a little about; it's not his best game, he knows it's not his best game and I just think again that the grit and the toughness that he played with though when he needed to get a couple first downs that really, really mattered to keep drives alive and put his body on the line and you know peeled himself off that ground
and just kept fighting for his teammates, that's special," Chesney said Saturday. "There's a whole lot we got to do in there.
"I got to go back and just watch the tape with our coaches and ask, ‘Are we putting the guys in the best position? Yes or no?’ I thought you saw that with Semaj (Morgan), what an unbelievable job by him just being able to again play the game that he just played. We need to get some bodies back, that's probably A and B. If we don't have those bodies back, it's hard to go in with your top three of who you think might be playing and then none of them play, and it changes the game plan pretty quickly midway through. We just got to adjust and be a little bit better.”
UCLA (2-0) will be back at the Rose Bowl on Saturday at 8 p.m. to play Purdue (1-1) in Big Ten action.
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This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Chesney is proud of 'grit and toughness' Nico Iamaleava had vs. SDSU
