UCLA football has dramatically turned its season around, going from a winless 0-4 start to winning its last two games.
Interim coach Tim Skipper and a new staff have been credited with changing the team’s culture and on-field performance.
After averaging just 14.3 points in its first four games, the offense has scored 80 points in its two recent victories.
It was less than two weeks ago that it appeared a wake was taking place at the Rose Bowl.
UCLA was 0-4 with an interim coach, and its loyal fans were up early on Oct. 4, reminiscing about the good ol’ times of Bruins football. They accepted the fact this was rock bottom, with No. 2 Penn State in town for what expected to be a blowout Nittany Lions win.
“This is, by far, probably the worst I’ve ever seen it,” UCLA alumnus and season ticket holder André Hannie told USA TODAY Sports before the game. “I was telling my wife this morning, we were talking about like, ‘what motivates me to still come?’”
UCLA has provided that motivation since with its season takin a 180-degree turn from one of the laughingstocks of college football to unlikly darlings of the sport. One moment, people are teasing Nico Iamaleava and the likelihood the Bruins have their first winless season in 1924. Next, they’re pondering an unlikely College Football Playoff path.
What the heck happened?
UCLA’s locker room is the beginning of the story
According to interim coach Tim Skipper, it started with a clean locker room.
“A clean locker room makes you a lot happier,” he said. “It shows team discipline and it shows you can win off the field, so now you can go ahead and get on the field.”
Locker rooms haven’t been the only thing cleaned up by Skipper, who took over after and a rebuilt staff that includes play-calling sensation Jerry Neuheisel.
It’s hard to emphasize how disastrous the 0-4 start was. It was averaging just 14.3 points per game – fourth-worst in FBS. If you looked at just about any statistic, good chance you’d find UCLA near the bottom. Skipper was only in charge for one of those games – a loss to Northwestern. He took over after Deshaun Foster was fired after defeats against Utah, UNLV and New Mexico.
The narrative changed in the past two games. A team that scored 57 points in the first four losses has scored 80 in its two victories. The offense is flowing and the defense has cleaned up mistakes, validated in the 38-13 win over Michigan State that came a week after that stirring defeat of Penn State.
What changed for UCLA?
Skipper recalled when he first stepped into the interim role, he was constantly asked about who was going to leave. Given how horrid the start was, no one would have blamed a player for entering the transfer portal, looking for greener pastures.
It wasn’t an easy task. Skipper knew how critical his first few days in charge were.
Create a vision and players could be intrigued enough to stay. Don’t show promise and you’ll have people jumping off like the program is the Titanic.
“When you’re taking over something, you’re new, everything you say is important, and you have to get everybody to go in the same direction altogether,” Skipper said.
Turns out, what Skipper said worked. Everyone has stayed, something he said was a major step in finding the right direction. The 30-day window for players to leave ended this week.
“We’ve shown them that, ‘Hey, we can make it a good environment here. Even though we have all this change and stuff, just stick with us and we’re going to be all right,’” Skipper said.
Players have echoed Skipper’s approach into paving a way for success. Iamaleava said Skipper is someone you want to play for. Defensive lineman Keanu Williams remembered the team’s vibe was uplifting when it was it its lowest moment when Foster was let go.
“We just looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, we can either cry about this and just throw the season away, or you know what? Let’s have fun with it. We have nothing to lose. Let’s go play and do what we got to do,’” Williams said.
So how has it translated into wins?
According to players, it’s just been about paying attention to those small details. As new coordinators came in to replace old ones, the team assessed what things weren’t working and how to correct them.
The changes were instantaneous. Kevin Coyle took over the defense before the Northwestern game, and even though it was a loss, UCLA gave up just 17 points, including a second half shutout. When Neuheisel took over play-calling duties, the offense took its first lead of the season and put up a season-high 42 points against Penn State.
Now that both sides of the ball have a better understanding of the playbook, UCLA feels like it has set the stage for a strong second half of the season.
UCLA … Big Ten contender?
As the Bruins were in the midst of scoring 38 consecutive points against the Spartans in Week 7, college football pundits and fans came to a startling revelation: With a 2-1 conference record, UCLA controls its destiny to a Big Ten title game appearance and is still alive in the playoff race.
No team that starts 0-4 should ever have a shot at a national championship run, but the reality of a 12-team playoff gives the Bruins a window. Albeit that opening is extremely small, as two of the next five games include road trips to No. 3 Indiana and No. 1 Ohio State.
But those games sure sound more compelling than the blowout that might have been expected two weeks ago. Can UCLA keep it rolling against two of the best teams in the nation?
Even if UCLA finishes 6-6, heck even 5-7, it will constitute a successful season. A bowl game, which should at least be the standard, would be a remarkable achievement.
Before the team headed to Michigan State, Skipper’s message was “are you a one-hit wonder?” He challenged his team to prove beating the Nittany Lions wasn’t a fluke and the season still means something.
After a dominant road victory, UCLA doesn’t look like Vanilla Ice, the Baha Men or Lou Bega. Maybe, a couple of hits are left for the fun team to watch in the Big Ten race.
“We have to keep doing what we’re doing and always be on the rise,” Skipper said. “It’s not time to get off the gas pedal right now.”