UCLA football (2-0) secured a 28-10 victory over San Diego State (1-1) on Saturday evening at the Rose Bowl in what was coach Bob Chesney’s first home win at the helm of the Bruins. Despite a slow start for both sides, Chesney’s squad once again dominated the final stretches of the game to come out on top. Assistant Sports editor Steven Chaparyan gives his five biggest takeaways from the Bruins’ week two triumph.
[Related: UCLA football takes down SDSU for strongest season start since 2023]
Next man up
One point of focus heading into the season was the depth of the Bruins’ receiver room.
Combining the experience of a returner in senior Mikey Matthews with elite transfer talent, it was clear that senior quarterback Nico Iamaleava would have no shortage of options to pass to.
But things don’t always go according to plan.
With senior wide receiver Landon Ellis already sidelined with a head injury he suffered against California, Matthews permanently exited the outing against the Aztecs in the second quarter after tweaking his left leg during a punt return.
Senior wide receiver Semaj Morgan answered the call and put that receiver depth on full display after bringing in just two receptions against the Golden Bears last weekend. Morgan led the match against SDSU with six catches on the night for 73 yards – 51 of which came in one fourth-quarter drive that helped the Bruins come out to a 14-3 lead. His six receptions equaled the Aztecs’ total tally throughout the game.
Alongside him was sophomore wide receiver Brian Rowe Jr., who was one of the few offensive bright spots for the Bruins in the first half before appearing to suffer an injury of his own. Rowe broke free for a 45-yard catch-and-run early in the second quarter, but came down in pain after a hard tackle from an Aztec defender.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, local eventually returned to the field in the third, compiling five receptions for 63 total yards across the night. And while Rowe and Morgan were the only two Bruins to catch at least five passes, the injured receiver core meant that some fresh faces also saw game action.
Junior wide receiver Jalen Saint Paul played some snaps in his season debut, posting two receptions for 11 yards. And while they didn’t record any catches, wide receivers senior Aiden Mizell and sophomore Shane Rosenthal also took the field as potential options with limited personnel.
While we may not definitively know the status of Ellis and Matthews moving forward, the Bruins displayed the “next man up” mentality in their absence.
Second half squad
Whatever Chesney has been telling his team at halftime has been working.
Across the Bruins’ first two outings, the team has tallied 24 total points in the first half – all of which came against the Golden Bears – and more than doubled that mark with 49 points in the second half. All but seven of those 49 came in fourth quarters.
The dominant late-game stretch against the Aztecs may not have been easily anticipated, though. Across the first half, the Bruins garnered just 88 yards through the air – including Rowe’s singular play that went for 45.
The blue and gold weren’t finding consistent offensive looks early on and often settled for short run options or passes into heavy coverage. It looked as though the squad was playing down to SDSU’s level, as the opposing squad was struggling to simply move the ball into the Bruins’ half of the field.
But it seems the fourth quarter is the moment they flip the switch.
Against the Golden Bears, that looked like a 21-0 final frame to capitalize on a defensive stronghold and move past a third quarter that saw very limited offensive production.
This weekend against the Aztecs, it looked like an 11-point scoring advantage in the fourth, fueled by three straight drives with a rushing touchdown – two of which came from fifth-year running back Wayne Knight.
There may not be one single contributing factor to the Bruins’ late-game heroics. After all, with a squad primarily composed of players who just recently made the move to Westwood, it likely takes time to gel and learn to work as a unit.
But while this trend has served Chesney’s group well in the first two weeks, it may not be sustainable across the next 10 games on the board.
So perhaps the head honcho can start giving those halftime motivations prior to the first kickoff moving forward.
Knight night
If there’s one player an opposing defense doesn’t want to get caught sleeping against, it’s Knight.
The 2025 First Team All-Sun Belt selection was already one of the most anticipated Bruin transfers ahead of this season, but he may have exceeded even those expectations to become the go-to weapon in the squad’s offensive arsenal.
With the Bruins yet to fully develop the pass in the young season, Knight has helped spearhead the run game to apply pressure on the ground.
The Smyrna, Delaware, local tallied nine rushing touchdowns last season at James Madison and set a program record for single-season all-purpose yards with 2,039. Despite that mark, he didn’t record a game with multiple rushing touchdowns throughout the year.
He already has two such performances this season with two-thirds of his rushing touchdown count from last year, and it’s still September.
Knight has recorded three rushing touchdowns in both of his first two games donning the blue and gold, leading a squad that has scored all 10 of its touchdowns on the ground so far.
And beyond simply running the ball into the end zone, Knight has done so at pivotal moments in the games to inject energy into a team that can grow offensively stagnant at times.
Against the Golden Bears, he broke the tie in the fourth quarter with a 31-yard rushing touchdown before another four-yard score that gave the Bruins a 14-point advantage en route to a three-touchdown victory.
This time around, the Bruins were struggling to put points on the board before another early fourth-quarter rushing touchdown from Knight gave them a 14-3 advantage. And with his 36-yard burst to the end zone roughly five minutes later, he continued making his case as the Bruins’ closer in late-game situations.
While Iamaleava and his receivers will certainly need to bolster the attack through the air as the season progresses, they can rest assured that the 5-foot-7 speedster will be saying “good Knight” to the opposing defense any chance he gets.
Were the khakis the problem?
While I don’t understand why Aztecs coach Sean Lewis believes the Bruin faithful show up to the Rose Bowl dressed like State Farm employees, I do know that he should have instead looked internally to come out on top in this one.
UCLA struggled to get things going on both sides of the field in the first half, but San Diego State didn’t do any better.
Aztec quarterback Jayden Denegal completed just six passes in the game on 17 attempts, passing for 45 total yards.
Iamaleava’s longest pass play – the completion after which Rowe was injured – equaled that 45-yard total and was just a fraction of the Bruin signal caller’s 151 total yards through the air. Additionally, Morgan tallied six receptions of his own to match the entire Aztec squad.
Denegal completed just two passes in the entire second half, with one coming in each of the third and fourth quarters. The senior began the final frame with six straight incompletions and an interception to fifth-year linebacker Jalen Woods.
The inability to throw the ball hindered the Aztecs from gaining any kind of momentum all night, but especially stung late. By the time Denegal achieved his sole completion of the fourth – a 19-yard touchdown pass with 2:28 left in the game – the Bruins had already tacked on two scores of their own in the quarter and jumped out to a double-digit lead they would never surrender.
Either as a result of the struggling pass game or due to prior knowledge of it, the Aztecs leaned on the run for most of the game. But it seemed as though they were using running back Lucky Sutton as more of a crutch than an actual weapon.
Sutton did tally a team-high 81 rushing yards, but he did so on 19 carries for an average of 4.26 yards per attempt and zero touchdowns. Meanwhile, Knight had six fewer carries than Sutton and rushed for 16 more yards. Iamaleava also rushed for nine more yards than the Aztecs’ second running back option, Javion Kinnard, on just one more attempt.
So no, coach Lewis, the polos and khakis were not the problem for your team.
Patience is a virtue
In his postgame press conference, Chesney spoke about the Bruins’ slow start to the outing and explained that a squad with so many new faces needs time to gel and find its collective identity.
While the first half against the Aztecs may have been an indicator that those goals haven’t been fully achieved yet, the Westwood squad has certainly been learning to operate as a unit.
Plus, there is still nothing but a goose egg in the loss column through the first two weeks of action.
The Bruins are converting at every level of the defense. Against the Golden Bears, the linebackers were the stars of the night, with the duo of senior Sammy Omosigho and Woods combining for 25 total tackles and a sack.
This week against SDSU, the secondary coverage stepped up its game and limited Denegal’s passing options. Senior safety Malik Hartford led the game with 10 total tackles on the night and was one of three Bruins to record a pass breakup.
Twelve Bruins recorded at least three tackles in the week two matchup, and half of that list reached a mark of at least five. Though the offense struggled to get going early, the defense is finding itself as a group and learning to operate at a high level at each position.
The offense needs to follow suit.
While Iamaleava is not filling in as the Bruins’ RB1 like he was last season, the Long Beach local repeatedly found himself scrambling across the field to keep plays alive in the first half against the Aztecs.
Iamaleava was the second-leading rusher behind Knight, which is a burden he should no longer have to shoulder with a trio of elite options at the running back position.
While I won’t complain about all of the Bruins’ touchdowns through the first two weeks coming on the ground – because they’ve won games – the squad will need to develop its consistency through the air to avoid long offensive droughts like the one the crowd sat through at the Rose Bowl.
Maybe it was the injuries to the receivers.
Or maybe the run game is just that dangerous this season.
No matter the reason for the one-dimensional attack Saturday night, it seems the Bruin faithful just need to be a little bit patient.
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