UCLA football looks ahead after loss to rival USC caps troubled season
LOS ANGELES — Corey Miller waved his arms back and forth like a swan’s wings at the west end zone of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. UCLA’s performance coach stood between a sea of Trojans and the Bruins’ sidelines, a one-man barrier as the rivals converged into the tunnel that holds the home and visiting locker rooms.
Was there any worry that UCLA, which had close to 60 newcomers to The Battle for L.A., would meet the moment of cardinal and gold versus blue and gold? Tension boiled over into spits and spats as UCLA headed into halftime leading 10-7, taking advantage of the USC special teams errors on Saturday evening.
“I’ve always wanted to be a part of it,” said quarterback Nico Iamaleava about the UCLA-USC rivalry.
The want that redshirt senior offensive lineman Garrett DiGiorgio waxed about during the midweek appeared to be on full display; the Bruins responding to what the rivalry has to offer and the Trojans haphazardly squandering the 21½-point spread they entered Saturday, hoisted up by.
“We were controlling the pace of things,” said UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper. “It was going the way we wanted to go.”
But as the game toiled on into the late third quarter, the screams of passion became muted by the harsh reality of results. UCLA redshirt sophomore defensive back Cole Martin roared, high-stepping after laying out USC wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane with a booming hit — on a 12-yard gain for a first down.
A handful of plays later, Trojans’ star receiver Makai Lemon left the boy who grew up dreaming of playing in the rivalry game — with Martin’s father, UCLA secondary coach Demetrice Martin, having coached both sides of the equation — on the hook for defensive holding as USC still took a 14-10 lead on its leading receiver’s 32-yard touchdown grab.
Lemon later hurdled Bruins’ punter Will Karoll on a punt return that led to a four-play, fourth-quarter drive to extend the Trojans’ lead to 11 points. The lead was finalized at 19 in the Bruins’ 29-10 defeat.
UCLA didn’t commit a penalty in the first half. All four of the Bruins’ offensive penalties came in the fourth quarter — two false starts and two delay of game — and created self-inflicted wounds that drained playmaking capital.
“We just didn’t make enough plays, you know?” Skipper said. “We started moving, and we went backwards.”
Saturday’s season finale was very much what UCLA (3-9, 3-6 Big Ten) offered in 2025: spurts of football enthusiasm with little to show for it beyond the Bruins’ three-game run to remember under Skipper.
Make it clear, Skipper will be remembered in Westwood — he flipped team culture on its head, instilling belief in a team that was once favored by metrics to end the season scoreless — but not even he could shock the Bruins’ talent level above the Trojans.
UCLA’s second-half goose egg – outscored 22-0 – described the reality of a team with not much going on outside of Iamaleava’s put-it-all-on-the-line mentality, working through neck spasms to make sure he was available against USC (9-3, 7-2).
“This was a big-time game for the Battle of L.A., and, you know, unfortunately, I couldn’t practice throughout the week,” said Iamaleava, who finished 27 of 38 for 200 passing yards and a touchdown.
The Bruins, however, missed the pieces around their redshirt sophomore signal caller that would have threatened the Trojans in the second half. That’ll be task No. 1 for the next UCLA head football coach: assembling a roster that can compete with the depth of quality the Big Ten showcases week to week.
No. 2 Indiana achieved such heights with the hiring of former James Madison coach Curt Cignetti — proving that anything is possible in modern-day college football, even turning the often bottom-dwelling Hoosiers into one of the sport’s powerhouses.
All eyes are on athletic director Martin Jarmond – who gazed at the press conference podium from the back of the room as Skipper, Iamaleava and defensive lineman Keanu Williams answered questions – ahead of his second football head coach hire.
The next time Jarmond observes a football coach giving a post-game analysis will be on September 5 against Cal in Berkeley.
Westwood is awaiting. Westwood is watching.