Undefeated UCLA proves why it should be ranked No. 1
This is no longer about sweet underdogs. This is no longer about smoke and mirrors.
This is as real as a Ty Dieffenbach rocket. This is as legit as a Wayne Knight rumble. This is as true as a Sammy Omosigho roar.
This is the best college football team in America.
This is UCLA.
The College Football Playoff selection committee has insulted them, their city has mostly ignored them, and few outside of the range of Bob Chesney’s wonderfully gravelly football voice has actually believed in them.
Wise up. Pay attention. This is evolving into one of the best stories in college football history, and it gets more eight-clappy by the week.
Less than a year removed from a 3-9 record, the Bruins improved to 9-0 Saturday with a dominating 34-20 victory over physical Minnesota at Huntington Bank Stadium.
Playing in a place where the Gophers had only lost once in two years, playing with a backup quarterback making his first road start — and still outgaining Minnesota by 170 yards and outscoring them 17-0 to end the game — this was the Bruins’ best win of the season.
They entered Saturday morning sitting only eighth in the initial CFP rankings, which is a joke, and one that should be corrected by next Tuesday night.
UCLA should be ranked No. 1. Right now. Period. That’s right, number one, ahead of those stinky two-loss SEC teams, ahead of those marginal one-loss SEC teams, ahead of unbeaten but untested Utah, ahead of unsettled Miami, ahead of every other team that may have better metrics but just don’t look the part.
UCLA aces the eye test. Watch this team for four quarters and marvel at the depth, the drive, the smarts and the shock.
For the last two months the Bruins’ defense has been the best in the country, their running game has been the best in the Big Ten, and they’re outscoring opponents 112-34 in the fourth quarter.
Heard enough? Just watch. Their specialty is that shock, witnessed Saturday at the start of the fourth quarter with the game locked in a 17-all tie after a Gopher touchdown dart from Drake Lindsey to a leaping George Rohl seemingly gave the home team all the momentum.
UCLA quarterback Ty Dieffenbach smiles after the Bruins’ win over Minnesota on Saturday.
(David Berding / Getty Images)
Next play from scrimmage? Dieffenbach hits sprinting Florida transfer Aidan Mizell down the middle for a 75-yard touchdown pass.
Boom, Bruins.
Minnesota used the ensuing possession to drive for a 36-yard field goal by Luke Drzewiecki to keep it close and regain some of that momentum.
Next play from scrimmage? Dieffenbach connects with an all-alone-again Mizell with another soaring downfield pass that became another 75-yard touchdown reception.
Boom, boom, Bruins
“Our guys battled,” said Chesney afterward. “They never wavered.”
They indeed never waver, a testament to this team’s experience, toughness and depth. The players have bought into this resilience such that they’re not afraid to state it as fact.
“We own the fourth quarter,” Dieffenbach said. “People can say whatever they want. We know what we have in this building.”
What they have is a team that their coach claims is guided by a single word.
“Belief, belief, belief,” Chesney said. “They believe in their coaches, and they ultimately believe in each other.”
UCLA coach Bob Chesney yells during the first half of the Bruins’ win against Minnesota.
(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)
If you close your eyes, you can hear Curt Cignetti saying all those things last season during Indiana’s miracle run to an unbeaten national title.
Chesney doesn’t particularly like being compared to Cignetti — they are two totally different coaches who don’t really know each other — but the similarity in the rise of the two programs is unmistakable.
Renowned basketball school. Forlorn football tradition. Enter dozens of veteran transfers and a culture-changing coach and — voila! — you have a title contender.
That UCLA has the best football team in the country at the moment obviously doesn’t guarantee they will win it all. They still have tough games at home against Illinois, on the road at Michigan, and back home against USC, followed by the Big Ten championship game. They will still have to earn a first-round bye and its accompanying home playoff game to have a chance.
But that chance seems charmed, as charmed as a second-string quarterback leading your team to a November road victory by completing just eight passes for an amazing 303 yards and three touchdowns.
“Every game, every play I think I’m going to keep gaining confidence, showing the guys I can play too,” Dieffenbach said.
The quarterback was complemented by the usual Knight numbers — 109 yards rushing and a touchdown — and an Omosigho-inspired defense that makes every big play.
Next up, the Illini, winners of four consecutive games, coming to the Rose Bowl Friday night in front of… who knows how many? So far the biggest Bruin skeptics appear to be their own fans, which last week led to some friendly fire from their famous former quarterback.
Speaking on Dallas radio’s The Ticket, Troy Aikman chided Bruin fans who are maintaining their recent tradition of avoiding the Rose Bowl.
“Little embarrassing that we were 7-0 going into last week’s game and, they shoot it pretty low [TV camera angles] so you can’t really tell when you’re watching the game, I’m told there was about 20-25,000 people at the game,” Aikman said of the Bruins’ win over Nevada. “So when you have a stadium at the Rose Bowl that holds over 100,000, 25,000, it may as well be empty as opposed to some other stadiums that maybe hold 40,000.
He added, “We’ve got to get people going to games, we’ve got to get them excited about it. And then you say, ‘Well, how do you get them excited? If 7-0 doesn’t get them excited, what will?’ I don’t know the answer to that.”
The Bruins drew just 24,611 to the Rose Bowl against Nevada, but it was a game held on Halloween afternoon. Wait until USC shows up two days after Thanksgiving. And give Bruin fans a break. This fast-moving bandwagon is still brand new.
“That air keeps getting thinner and thinner and thinner as you climb to the top of this mountain,” said Chesney.
Nine and oh and if Saturday is any indication, the best football team in America is just getting its second wind.