PASADENA, Calif. - UCLA’s unbeaten march kept rolling Friday night, and once again the Bruins leaned on their defense to get it done.
The No. 4 Bruins beat Illinois 22-14 at the Rose Bowl in the rain, forcing three takeaways to knock off the Fighting Illini and move to 10-0 for the first time since 1998. Illinois’ four-game winning streak ended in the process.
UCLA wasted no time setting the tone. On the opening possession, senior quarterback Ty Dieffenbach went deep and found Aiden Mizell wide open down the right sideline for a 54-yard touchdown. It was the same kind of vertical strike UCLA used to open last week’s 34-20 win over Minnesota, and it put the Bruins ahead 7-0 immediately.
Mizell kept building on his recent surge. After his 150-yard, two-touchdown performance against Minnesota, he followed it up with six catches for 176 yards and a score. Dieffenbach praised him afterward, saying, "He's a great receiver," and adding, "You see what he does with the ball after he catches it."
Illinois had a chance to answer after a roughing-the-kicker penalty on Osiris Gilbert extended a drive, but UCLA’s defense slammed the door. Scooter Jackson read Katin Houser’s throw in the end zone and came down with the interception, extending his streak to four straight games with a pick.
The Bruins were still in control late in the first half when the night took a sharp turn. With less than a minute left before halftime and UCLA protecting a 10-point lead, Dieffenbach tried to avoid a sack by throwing the ball out of bounds and ended up on the turf clutching his left elbow. Third-string quarterback Madden Iamaleava finished the half, and then stayed in for one series in the third quarter before Dieffenbach returned to a loud ovation from the Rose Bowl crowd.
Dieffenbach called the reaction "That was unbelievable," and added, "It was awesome. You just can’t not want to play when you hear that."
UCLA’s defense kept rolling after the break. On a first-down play near midfield, safety Ta’Shawn James blitzed untouched and forced Houser into a hurried throw toward the UCLA sideline. Derrick Barksdale stepped in front of it for his second interception in the last three weeks.
The Bruins didn’t immediately cash in offensively, but the field position advantage paid off soon after. On second-and-7 from the Illinois 13, Aiden Gobaira beat the edge, chased Houser into the end zone and finished the play with a sack that produced a safety - UCLA’s first since Sept. 3, 2022 against Bowling Green.
Dieffenbach later added his second touchdown pass of the night, connecting with Semaj Morgan on a 26-yard grab. Illinois answered with a touchdown drive to cut the margin to five in the fourth quarter, but UCLA had one more defensive punch left.
As Illinois pushed for the lead, Jackson struck again, picking off Houser for the second time and locking down his Big Ten-leading fifth interception of the season. That turnover set up a field goal that pushed UCLA ahead 22-14.
Bob Chesney had plenty to say about Jackson’s night, saying, "He really understands the game," and adding, "He understands the tendencies. He understands the matchups.
He understands a lot of like big picture football stuff. It’s really exciting to watch him go."
UCLA’s defense closed the door from there, forcing a turnover on downs to seal the win. The Bruins held Illinois’ rushing attack to 2.1 yards per carry and didn’t allow a run longer than 10 yards.
More than 45,000 fans helped turn the finish into a frenzy. Chesney said, "The fans were impressive," and added, "To show up and be present the entire time, it’s special."
Linebacker Sammy Omosigho, who led the team with seven tackles, echoed that sentiment. "Shout out the fans," he said.
"It was loud, it was energetic. We really felt y’all.
Let’s continue to do that every week."
UCLA has built this run on flexibility, whether that means stretching the field or leaning on a defense that now leads college football with 30 takeaways. Dieffenbach said, "We find ways to win," and added, "It’s super easy to win games with this defense. They’re always bringing the juice pregame."
Gobaira pointed to the bond in the huddle as a big part of that edge. "It’s a brotherhood," he said.
We’re really together, we’re connected. "We know that if we make a big play, we gotta get up and make another big play.
It’s always on to the next."
The Bruins are now two wins from a perfect regular season, and Omosigho said the outside noise hasn’t changed what this team believes. "You gotta make them believe because no one believed that UCLA would be 10-0 this year," he said. "No one in the country, no one anywhere."
Even with the milestone win and the biggest single-season turnaround in program history, Chesney made it clear the approach won’t change. "It’s one day at a time,” he said.
We can’t look ahead. We just have to take a deep dive and self-evaluate on a day-to-day basis and figure out how can we get better."
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The defense did its part to protect the lead, forcing a safety and getting two interceptions from Scooter Jackson to help close it out. Even with the win in hand, the concern around Dieffenbach lingers as UCLA moves forward, because the Bruins have shown enough already to know how much their ceiling depends on him staying on the field. [Read more 🡒]