Well, folks, we won’t sugarcoat it: the vibes around Penn State football are not at an all-time high right now. Just four days after the Nittany Lions’ loss to No. 2 Oregon in the 2025 White Out, starting linebacker Tony Rojas suffered a long-term injury that is expected to knock him out for the entire season.

With that being said, there is no team in the Big Ten with as low a confidence level in themselves then UCLA. The Bruins are 0-4 with losses to three out-of-conference teams in New Mexico, Utah, and UNLV. The only team they have played in conference is Northwestern, which has only beaten Western Illinois and UCLA.

If there was a time for a crazy upset, though, it would be when Penn State takes on UCLA in the Rose Bowl on Saturday. After all, when Big Ten teams from the East cross the Rocky Mountains, they are 4-11 (.267) straight up and 6-9 (.400) against the spread since 2024, per CBS.

UCLA also has history on its side as the Nittany Lions and the Bruins have met seven times in the school’s history, with UCLA leading the series 4-3. The last time the two historic teams met was last season, when Penn State won 27-11 in Beaver Stadium.

The Team

As aforementioned, UCLA is yet to win a game through four games of the season. The closest contest the Bruins have found themselves in came against Northwestern. The Wildcats jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first half, and despite Northwestern going scoreless through the next two quarters, UCLA could not complete the comeback.

The 2025 season has not been easy on UCLA, as the team moved on from its head coach, DeShaun Foster, as well as the offensive coordinator, Tino Sunseri, and the defensive coordinator, Ikaika Malloe, in the month of September.

The interim head coach is Tim Skipper, who was promoted from his role as special assistant to the head coach. Skipper has some experience being put into the fire as he served as Fresno State’s interim/acting head coach in 2024 and 2023, and was the Bulldogs’ interim defensive coordinator in 2011.

Outside of his interim duties, the former Fresno State linebacker has spent time as a position coach for teams like Florida, Colorado State, Central Michigan, and UNLV.

On the offensive side of the ball, Jerry Neuheisel will call the plays, a role he was given on Wednesday after serving as an assistant head coach and a tight ends coach for most of the season.

Neuheisel spent the past three seasons as a wide receiver coach for the Bruins but began his coaching career as a quality control coach with Texas A&M. The Los Angeles, California, native played his college football with UCLA, winning the Charles Pike Memorial Award as the most outstanding scout-team player on offense in 2012.

The acting defensive coordinator has more experience. Kevin Coyle was given the role after serving as a defensive assistant to start the year. He previously worked as the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins from 2012-2015 and made stops as a positional coach with the Bengals and LSU since then. He was also Fresno State’s defensive coordinator under Skipper.

The Offense

UCLA has not been able to get much going on the offensive side of the ball, scoring just 14.25 points per game in 2025. A large part of this struggle has been the offensive line, with quarterback Nico Iamaleava pressured on over 50% of dropbacks this season. For context, while at Tennessee, he was pressured on more than 33% of dropbacks in just three games.

Iamaleava joined the Bruins this season after his infamous fallout with the Volunteers. While there was a dispute over the exact details of the arguments, UCLA and Tennessee wound up switching quarterbacks.

So far this season, Iamaleava has a 124.51 passer rating, with 788 yards and four touchdowns on 124 attempts.

The rushing attack has also suffered from the offensive line play and inconsistent play callers, as Iamaleava leads the team with 257 yards on the ground. The Bruins were supposed to have a formidable committee of backs heading into the season, but none have found their feet this season.

Jaivian Thomas, who averaged 5.8 yards per carry in 2024 and 2023, has 110 yards through four games. Anthony Woods, who rushed for 1100+ yards and 16 TDs as a sophomore at FCS school Idaho, has 127 yards. No UCLA running back has a rushing touchdown in 2025.

The offensive line, while much less talented, had a similar situation to Penn State’s coming into the season. Four of the starters had over eight Power Four starts under their belts, but transfers and other guys were putting pressure on, seemingly creating more than five starters.

The issue is, outside of left guard Garrett DiGiorgio, none of the linemen have played well this season.

In terms of receivers, sophomore Kwazi Gilmore leads the team with 225 yards and a touchdown. Gilmore was the most productive returning receiver for UCLA after his true-freshman season and has played the part in 2025.

The other two options for Iamaleava have been Mikey Matthews, a transfer from Cal, and Titus Mokiao-Atimalala. Woods has been a viable option out of the backfield with over 100 yards on the season as well.

The Defense

The Bruins have not been impressive on the defensive side of the ball either. UCLA’s defense is averaging 31.3 points per game, which ranks as the 99th-best mark in FBS, through the first four games of the season. As the worst team in the Big Ten to begin the season, the Bruins are giving up over 400 yards a game with 6.2 yards per play for opponents.

The best part of the UCLA defense has been its red-zone defense, only allowing points on 83% of opponents’ trips.

The run game defense has been especially bad, a good sign for a struggling Penn State rushing attack. The Bruins have been allowing over 230 yards per game through the first month. Through the air, teams have averaged 8.3 yards per pass on a 74% completion rate. That’s with opposing quarterbacks dropping back to pass against the Bruins at the lowest percentage in college football–a sign your team isn’t in many games.

Anthony Jones leads the defensive line with 1.5 sacks, and Jonjon Vaughns leads the team with 47 total tackles through the beginning of the year. Isaiah Chisom adds 42 more tackles as the second most on the team behind Vaughns.

The Bruins have yet to force an interception on the year, but have forced and recovered two fumbles as their only turnovers.

Special Teams

Will Karoll takes care of the punting duties for the Bruins. Karoll has booted it away 14 times thus far, with a 41.2 yards per punt average. The Australian has a long of 52 yards on the year with four punts landing inside the 20-yard line.

UCLA has been perfect on field goals this season, with Mateen Bhaghani taking care of things. Bhaghani is a perfect 7-7 on the year with a long of 51 yards. The junior also handles kickoffs for the Bruins. On 15 kickoffs, Bhaghani has recorded 9 touchbacks.

The Bruins are a non-threat in the punt return game. Mikey Matthews has returned two punts all year for a total of two yards. On kickoff returns, Anthony Frias II has taken it out seven times with a 19.3-yard average on his returns.