The unranked UCLA Bruins football team pulled off the upset of the season after besting the seventh-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions 42-37 on Saturday. The win not only marked UCLA's first win of the season but shattered a 40-year-old NCAA record in the process.
UCLA's victory is the first time a team with a 0-4 or worse record beat a team ranked inside the Top 10 since 1985, as pointed out by Hayes Fawcett of On3.
Led by sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava, UCLA gashed Penn State on the ground and through the air to a total of 435 yards. Iamaleava scored a game-leading five touchdowns, including three rushing, out-dueling Penn State quarterback Drew Allar in the process.
The Bruins' defense put together an impressive performance that concluded with a game-sealing fourth-and-two stop backed up against their own goal line. UCLA held the Penn State offense to its second-lowest total yards in a game through five weeks, and stymied the running game. Despite scoring two touchdowns, Penn State running back Kaytron Allen was limited to just 50 yards, his second-lowest total this season and the fewest total yards since Week 1. The Bruins' defense also forced one turnover and two other fumbles, allowing their offense to take a commanding 27-7 halftime lead.
The win comes two weeks after UCLA fired head coach DeShaun Foster and named special assistant Tim Skipper the interim head coach. Through four weeks, UCLA never held a lead in a game and had scored under 15 points in each of the last two weeks. They led the entire game against Penn State and controlled the clock by a near 20-minute advantage.
After the game, Skipper reflected on the win and his team's perseverance after a rough start to the season.
“It feels great. I'm so proud of the team and the coaches,” Skipper told CBS Sports. “We hung together. We stuck together. Everybody counted us out, but we knew we were just going to go to work. Every single play counted today. That's a top-notch Penn State team. We kept our minds right and continued to execute. I'm just so proud of the team.”
The historic loss is likely to drop Penn State out of the CFB Top-10 rankings and has sparked calls to fire head coach James Franklin. Meanwhile, UCLA is celebrating its first win of the 2025 season and looking to make it two in a row next Saturday vs. Michigan State.
