Oregon coach Dan Lanning said Monday night that defensive lineman Bear Alexander will not face discipline after the controversial play in Saturday’s 17-15 loss to UCLA that left Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava injured.
Video of the sequence spread across social media after the game, showing Alexander punching Iamaleava while the quarterback was on the ground. On the tackle, Alexander’s weight also landed on Iamaleava’s left leg, and multiple reports indicate the knee injury will end the UCLA starter’s season.
At his weekly press conference Monday, UCLA coach Bob Chesney said Iamaleava told him on the sideline, “They keep punching me in the face.”
Chesney later reviewed the video and made clear he was bothered by what he saw.
“When you see it, it’s certainly egregious,” Chesney told reporters. “It shouldn’t be a play that’s allowed to occur in this sport and it’s a shame that it was missed.”
Lanning offered a different explanation for the hit, saying Alexander was trying to go after the football rather than the quarterback. He also said the play was too late and not carried out properly.
“I think Bear was trying to take a ball shot,” Lanning said. “We’re pretty aggressive about when the quarterback’s running, there’s opportunities that the ball is loose.
Obviously, it’s late, right? And it’s not it’s not the way it needs to be done, wasn’t executed the right way.
Bear knows that. I think he feels bad about that.
It’s one of the first things he said to me. He goes, ‘I didn’t want to, I wasn’t trying to hurt the guy.’”
Oregon players, including Alexander, are typically not made available to the media on Mondays.
The Ducks are 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten. They’ll host Nebraska, which is 5-1 and 2-1 in the league, at 8 p.m. Saturday at Autzen Stadium.
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