No. 5 UCLA needed a little time to shake Minnesota, but once the Bruins found their stride in the fourth quarter, the game turned fast.
Ty Dieffenbach connected with Aidan Mizell on two 75-yard touchdown strikes in the final period, and UCLA pulled away for a 34-20 win Saturday in Minneapolis to remain unbeaten. Wayne Knight added 109 rushing yards and his 15th touchdown of the season as the Bruins improved to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the Big Ten.
Dieffenbach, who stepped in a month ago for the injured Nico Iamaleava, delivered a career day in a compact package: 303 passing yards on only eight completions. He did it despite throwing an interception and losing a fumble, then made Minnesota pay with the kind of explosive plays that can break a defense open in a hurry. Mizell, a transfer from Florida, found space behind the secondary on back-to-back one-play drives, and UCLA was gone.
Minnesota had hung around long enough to make things interesting. Drake Lindsey threw for 205 yards and a touchdown to freshman tight end George Rohl, a score that tied the game at 17 in the third quarter. But the Gophers couldn’t hold up in the second half, and the coverage busts on Mizell proved costly.
The Bruins also got a major boost from Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck’s decision to try two long field goals.
Luke Drzewiecki had been automatic, but on fourth-and-2 in the first quarter, his 56-yard attempt drifted wide right and snapped his FBS-best streak of 26 straight made field goals. UCLA responded immediately: Dieffenbach picked up 18 yards on a read-option run, then hit Knight on a 28-yard swing pass to spark the Bruins’ first touchdown march.
The same sequence repeated in the third quarter. Fleck sent Drzewiecki out again from 56 yards on fourth-and-4, and the kick missed wide right once more. Knight then ripped off a 31-yard run around the right edge, and three plays later Noah Fox-Flores hauled in a 27-yard touchdown to put UCLA ahead 17-10.
For UCLA, the setting made the win even more impressive. The Bruins kicked off at 9 a.m. in Los Angeles time, played in 44-degree weather, and faced a Minnesota team with upset potential. With rival USC still three weeks away, this was one of the three toughest games left on UCLA’s 2026 schedule, and the Bruins handled it with plenty of toughness on both sides of the ball.
Minnesota, meanwhile, continues to fight through injuries up front. Season-ending losses at the top two center spots have weakened the line, and the pressure Lindsey has faced against some of the nation’s best defenses has disrupted the passing game. He settled in and made some clutch throws late, but it wasn’t enough to keep pace.
UCLA returns home to face Illinois on Friday night.
In Other News...
Gophers Let St. Thomas Make This Rivalry Opener Uncomfortable
The first meeting between Minnesota and St. Thomas as Division I programs in nearly a century had the feel of a neighborhood rivalry finally getting its long-awaited stage. Minnesota hosted the Tommies in a regular-season game and came away with a 76-62 win, but it was not the kind of comfortable night the Gophers might have wanted in front of a familiar crowd.
St. Thomas made things interesting with a second-half comeback attempt before Minnesota steadied itself at the line and closed it out. Isaac Asuma led all scorers with 20 points, and the Gophers free throw shooting proved to be one of the difference-makers in a game that briefly threatened to turn into a much messier opener than expected. [Read more 🡒]
Gophers Turned A Winnable Night Into A Troubling Defensive Warning
Minnesota had a chance to turn a solid night into a statement win after clawing back to tie UCLA at 17-17 in the fourth quarter, but the game slipped away in a hurry from there. The Gophers could not keep the Bruins from finding space downfield, and a defense that had been hanging on suddenly looked vulnerable in the kind of situation that tends to linger long after the final whistle.
The bigger concern is how quickly UCLA was able to flip the game with explosive plays, exposing Minnesotas secondary when the pressure was highest. Add in the missed long kicks that left points on the field and the loss starts to feel less like a simple setback and more like a warning sign, the sort of night that forces a team to look hard at what went wrong before the next one arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Gophers Just Showed An Offensive Twist Fans Will Want To Track
Minnesota got a useful early-season look at a different kind of offensive balance in a 76-62 win over St. Thomas, with Isaac Asuma, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson and Nolan Groves all giving the Gophers something to build on. Asuma led the way with 20 points, while Crocker-Johnson added 16 points and 10 rebounds as Minnesota opened up an 18-point halftime lead and showed it could score in more than one way.
Groves also gave the Gophers a lift with 15 points, and the performance was enough to withstand a second-half push from St. Thomas. For a team still sorting out its rotation and scoring options, the bigger takeaway may be that Minnesota had multiple players who could carry stretches of the offense, a development worth watching as the schedule gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]