Winless UCLA stuns No. 7 Penn State in biggest upset of the season

ASSOCIATED PRESS

UCLA's losses this season: Utah, UNLV, New Mexico, Northwestern.

UCLA's wins this season, after Saturday: No. 7 Penn State.

The biggest upset of the college football season landed in Pasadena on Saturday, with the winless Bruins not just defeating a top 10 opponent but persistently overwhelming them on offense in a 42-37 win. UCLA outgained the Nittany Lions 446-357, with 280 of their yards on the ground.

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With Penn State favored by 24.5 points at BetMGM, it was the biggest upset of the college football season. The loss also snaps a streak of 34 straight wins over unranked opponents for Penn State.

It needs to be emphasized: UCLA wasn't just winless, they were winless with a scheduled that was half Mountain West. They weren't just winless, they hadn't led in a game all season until a touchdown on their opening drive. They weren't just winless, they entered Saturday as the second-worst team in the Power 4 by Sagarin ratings, ahead of only Oklahoma State.

UCLA fired head coach DeShaun Foster after its third loss and let go defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe shortly after. They were as dead in the water as a program can be while still getting Big Ten checks.

Meanwhile, Penn State entered this game trying to recovering from a top 10 clash with Oregon a week prior, which it lost 30-24 in double overtime. Despite being on the road, a day game at a Rose Bowl not nearly close to full appeared to be the perfect bounce-back opportunity.

Instead, the Bruins offense worked over Jim Knowles' defense from the opening whistle. They entered halftime up 27-7, with 370 yards on offense. Penn State had the personnel to erase a 20-point deficit in a half of football, but got off to a bad start in the third quarter with a fumble by Luke Reynolds on their second play.

Penn State held the Bruins scoreless on the subsequent drive, though, and began a comeback that felt inevitable after a blocked punt narrowed the deficit to six points with a quarter and a half to play.

The UCLA offense shook off the setback and scored on its next two drives, with quarterback Nico Iamaleava posting big runs on both series. He ultimately finished with 166 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-24 passing plus 128 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground, the kind of performance many were expecting when he arrived in Los Angeles after a controversial transfer from Tennessee.

Penn State still got a chance to even the score or take the lead in the final two minutes with a fourth-down stop in UCLA territory. Then they got stopped on their fourth-down attempt at the UCLA 9-yard line.

UCLA gained nothing on its final drive while Penn State used all three of its timeouts, opening up the chance at the rare intentional safety to burn precious seconds off the clock. It worked, leaving only 12 seconds for Penn State to take shots at the end zone from its own territory.

Fittingly, the Penn State special teams unit appeared surprised by the safety, waiting to rush the punter.

The level of disaster here is unfathomable for Penn State head coach James Franklin. For so long, the narrative for his program has been coming up short in big games (e.g. last week) while steadily beating lesser teams (e.g. UCLA) to always ensure a positive record. There's no telling what Penn State does from here, but they at least get another favorable game next week, at home vs. Northwestern.