- Nico Iamaleava plays heroically in UCLA upset of Penn State.
- An upset? Yes. But also, a humiliation for Penn State and James Franklin.
- UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper coaches fearlessly.
“Mr. April” just became “Mr. Upset.”
Take a bow, Nico Iamaleava. You deserve it.
UCLA’s previously beleaguered quarterback just unmasked Penn State as frauds.
This wasn’t just an upset. This was a thunderclap. A jaw-dropper. For No. 6 Penn State, a humiliation, this 42-37 Bruins triumph that turned all that preseason hype for the Nittany Lions into dust.
Anyone have this on their bingo card?
‘I’m just so proud,’ UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper told CBS amid a postgame moment of euphoria.
The Bruins (1-4) played with more spirit and physicality. To be sure, they played with the better quarterback.
Five touchdowns, Iamaleava supplied. Countless tackles, he broke.
Iamaleava absorbed months’ worth of mockery after he took a pay cut to transfer from Tennessee, a playoff contender, in favor of moribund UCLA. The wisecracks reached a fever pitch after UCLA went winless in September, and its coach got fired.
Iamaleava didn’t play terribly in the season’s first month, but he also didn’t play like a five-star talent worthy of big NIL bucks. Maybe, he was just saving all his highlights for this game.
‘We got a great win,’ Iamaleava told CBS afterward. ‘Finally.’
Iamaleava shredded Penn State with his arm and his legs. He threw dimes and broke ankles. Some vindication, finally, for a quarterback who, in April, became the poster child of college football’s free agency era. Iamaleava bailed on Tennessee a day before its spring game, but he didn’t quit on UCLA or on Skipper.
Skipper coached with the requisite fearlessness of an interim coach. UCLA made the easiest recovery of an onside kick in the history of the sport when Skipper’s call caught Penn State fast asleep in the first quarter.
Skipper managed the clock beautifully, too.
Penn State preseason hype goes poof
Pity the fool who bet Penn State to win the national championship. There’s degenerate gambling, and then there’s stupidity, and if you purchased a betting slip with Penn State’s name listed as national champion, I’m afraid you suffer from the latter.
James Franklin cannot win a big game, a fact he reiterated in last week’s home loss to Oregon, but never mind that, because on this day, he got outwitted by an interim man.
When time extinguished, Franklin stood on the field and watched blue and gold confetti fall.
Penn State’s record says it’s 3-2, but it might as well say 0-2, because the Nittany Lions’ first three games amounted to glorified exhibitions after they assembled one of the nation’s most pitiful nonconference schedules.
And you can call this a hangover result for Penn State after last week’s clash with Oregon, or the byproduct of a cross-country flight, but there’s no justifiable excuse for losing to an opponent with losses to the likes of UNLV, New Mexico and Northwestern.
UCLA scored on all five first-half possessions while establishing a 20-point halftime lead, but surely a 24½-point underdog couldn’t keep that up, right? Right.
Penn State mounted the rally you just knew was coming, but Iamaleava kept playing like a trophy was on the line.
Iamaleava needed just an ounce of help to secure this stunner. UCLA’s defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed for most of the second half, until supplying a crucial fourth-down stop in the red zone that gave Iamaleava the hero’s victory he earned.
‘Ballers always ball out,’ Skipper said of Iamaleava. ‘I’m glad he’s on my team.’
UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava enjoys his finest hour
Frankly, what a waste of Iamaleava’s talents that he’s on a team as bad as UCLA’s. Think maybe Steve Sarkisian and Texas would benefit from Iamaleava? Arch Manning is no Nico. Seriously.
Iamaleava ran like Tecmo Super Bowl’s version of Bo Jackson on a 52-yard run in which he evaded a series of tacklers. A few plays later, the lithe Iamaleava bulldozed across the goal line.
Apparently, nobody told Iamaleava he’s playing on a belly-up team. He was a maestro on third downs. He drew Penn State offsides on a critical fourth down in the fourth quarter.
He was, in a word, brilliant.
Every time the Bruins’ lead slipped into danger, Iamaleava would take off on some daring run that moved the chains. With the quarterback leading the charge, the Bruins rushed for 280 yards against what’s supposed to be one of the Big Ten’s saltiest defenses.
On a beautiful day in SoCal, most Angelenos avoided the Rose Bowl. The smattering of fans in attendance witnessed the most shocking result of the season.
They saw a quarterback remake himself as “Mr. Upset’ and the Bruins defrock the Nittany Lions.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.