Tim Skipper took a deep breath. What else could he do?
His defender had just clutched his right knee and needed help to leave the field with just over two minutes remaining in a tense game in which his team seemed on the verge of losing its mojo. Skipper has been in enough situations like this to know that sometimes injuries that look scary turn out just fine, so… UCLA The temporary trainer sighed and waited for the medical staff to give their verdict.
One day Skipper saw Niko Yamaleava As he began pacing the Rose Bowl sideline, his expression no longer frozen in a grimace, the coach decided that a team in need of a late break could get one.
“I thought, man, we have a chance, we have a chance,” Skipper said. “And then they acquitted him, and I thought, okay, here we go.”
Having already scored one game-winning goal in the fourth quarter, Yamealeava would have another to tie the game against Maryland with only 35 seconds remaining on Saturday night.
In just four plays, an incredible drive that began at the UCLA 27-yard line ended on the Maryland 5 after two completed passes and a tough run by Anthony Frias II in which the backup runner refused to be brought down, spinning and breaking tackles en route to a 35-yard gain.
Kicker Matin Bhagani took advantage, kicking a 23-yard field goal with two seconds left to give the Bruins a 20-17 victory after the Terrapins failed to perform a miracle on the ensuing kickoff.
So the fun continues for a team that went from 0-4 to .500 after its third straight win.
It might have seemed hard to imagine a month ago, but next weekend the national spotlight will be on the Bruins (3-4 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) when they take on No. 3 Indiana on the road in Fox's Big Noon exhibition game.
“It feels amazing,” said Skipper, who has since won three of four games. replacement for DeShaun Foster. “It means we're doing something right.”
UCLA's Matin Bhagani (No. 94) celebrates with teammates after making a 23-yard field goal in the final seconds of a 20-17 win over Maryland in the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.
(Harry Howe/Getty Images)
After the victory in the barn burner v. State of Pennsylvania and ejection against Michigan State, UCLA needed to come back against the Terrapins to continue its incredible midseason resurgence. The skipper once again found his players lacking determination, no matter the situation.
“It’s all about faith,” Skipper said. “The guys have faith. Nothing happened the whole game to knock our confidence.”
With the Bruins trailing 10-7 with less than five minutes to play, they turned to a quarterback who had been shaky most of the day when he had two passes intercepted and lost a game in which he was hit in the arm while throwing.
The tide has finally turned in the quarterback's favor.
Facing fourth-and-10 from inside linebacker, Yamaleawa connected with receiver Quasi Gilmer for a 16-yard gain, with an additional 15 yards added for a targeting penalty for the Terrapins (4-3, 1-3).
Three plays later, Yamaleawa threw a 14-yard pass to Mikey Matthews, who cut into the corner of the end zone, giving the Bruins a 14-10 lead in what seemed like destiny fulfilled for the slot receiver.
UCLA guard Niko Yamaleava passes in the first half against Maryland in the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
(Harry Howe/Getty Images)
“Oh, I just saw the coverage of the men’s game,” Matthews said, “and I knew I was going to score.”
Things got better for UCLA when cornerback Scooter Jackson intercepted a pass on Maryland's next possession and ran with his teammates into the end zone to celebrate. After Yamaleava injured his knee shortly after when he was slammed into the turf and went flying, Bhagani kicked a 42-yard field goal to extend the Bruins' lead to 17-10 with 2:04 left.
UCLA may not need a quarterback anymore.
But the Bruins defense, which had been stout all day and only allowed a field goal, suddenly weakened in the final two minutes.
Maryland drove 75 yards in just 84 seconds to tie the game as quarterback Malik Washington connected with Jalil Farook for an eight-yard touchdown pass with 40 seconds left.
Yamaleava returned to the field and finished the game completing 21 of 35 passes for 221 yards.
The incompletion was followed by back-to-back completions by Titus Moquiao-Atimalala, the former running for 14 yards and the latter for 19. Then came a hard-fought run by Frias, who was getting extra carries due to injuries to teammates Anthony Woods and Jayvian Thomas.
It was another storybook story about the player who stood outside the Rose Bowl nearly a decade ago with a sign above his head that read, “One day I'll play here!”
He did much more than just show up at the iconic stadium on Saturday.
In dreams, Frias scored on a 55-yard run early in the second quarter after punting one way and then the other before escaping a tackle inside the 10-yard line to give UCLA a 7-3 lead.
A big fan of Christian McCaffrey, who painted a red S on his bare chest the day of Stanford's Rose Bowl victory over Iowa in 2016, Frias celebrated his first UCLA touchdown — and his team's longest scoring streak of the season — by stepping high into the end zone before slap hands with a Bruins fan.
“It means a lot to me,” Frias said of his success. “I was able to get the opportunity and make the most of it. I'm grateful to my coaches for allowing me to do that tonight.”
Frias' final run gave him a career-high 97 yards on just four carries, with the Bruins needing every yard on a day when they weren't anywhere near the 40 points they had averaged in the previous two games with Jerry Neuheisel as the playcaller.
But UCLA had the same ending, with water flying into the air amid a jubilant locker room, thanks in large part to a quarterback who found a way even when it looked like he wouldn't get the chance.
“Rivals compete,” Skipper said, “and he didn’t want to go out, he went in there and did his thing.”
