UCLA Mounts 2nd Half Comeback Behind Ethan Garbers; Beats Boise State, 35-22
The Bruins scored 28 consecutive points to win their first bowl game since the 2015 Alamo Bowl.
In the first half, the UCLA Bruins looked a lot like the same team fans saw against Arizona, Arizona State and UC Berkeley.
The Bruins spotted Boise State six points on two field goals after punting the ball away on each of their first two possessions of the game.
On UCLA’s third drive of the game, starting quarterback Collin Schlee put together a nice drive for the Bruins. The drive began on the Bruins own 17 after Colson Yankoff returned a kickoff he should have fair caught to give UCLA better field position. On the first play of the drive, Schlee took off and ran for 17 yards. He followed that with an 8-yard completion to Moliki Matavao. Then, Schlee scampered for 50 yards to give UCLA the ball on the Boise State eight-yard line. On third-and-goal from the five, Schlee threw a shuffle pass to Hudson Habermehl in the end zone for the Bruins’ first touchdown of the game.
The Broncos re-took the lead on a 33-yard field goal which made it 9-7.
After a three-and-out, UCLA punted the ball away and the Broncos went on a 52-yard drive that culminated in a one-yard touchdown plunge by George Holani which made it 16-7 and that was the score at the half.
Boise State got the ball to start the second half but the Bruins held them to a three-and-out.
UCLA took over on their own 13-yard line. Following runs of seven and 27 yards by TJ Harden, Schlee found Logan Loya for 5 yards. On second-and-ten from the UCLA 47, Schlee took off on another big run. This time, he ran it for 44 yards down to the Bronco 9, but he took a hit to the head and had to leave the game.
Ethan Garbers came in to replace Schlee and, on Garbers’ third pass play, he found Kyle Ford for a five-yard touchdown pass, and the Broncos now led by a score of 16-14.
The Bruin defense forced another Boise State punt and the UCLA offense took over on their own 28. On the sixth play of the Bruin drive, Garbers found J. Michael Sturdivant for 39 yard gain. Two plays later, Ryan Cragun nearly scored on pass play but he couldn’t stretch the ball past the goal line before being brought down.
That play set up a one-yard run by Harden and the Bruins took a 21-16 lead.
UCLA’s defense stepped up again and held the Broncos to another three-and-out. Garbers then did his best impression of Schlee and ran for 15 yards on the first play of the drive. Then, he went back to the air and found Sturdivant for a 41-yard reception and the Bruins were now on the Bronco 14-yard line. On the next play, Harden took it for 14 yards on the ground to increase UCLA’s lead to 28-16.
The teams traded punts on the next two series and Boise State was moving the ball well, albeit a little slowly, when CJ Tiller overthrew his receiver and Alex Johnson jumped up to grab it.
Garbers and company took over on the Boise State 40 and he promptly found Sturdivant for another Bruin touchdown, putting the Bruins up 35-16.
The UCLA defense completely broke down on the third play of Boise State’s next drive as George Holani took off on a 66-yard run which cut the UCLA lead to 35-22 after an unsuccessful two-point try.
With just over five minutes to play, Bronco head coach Spencer Danielson attempted on onside kick, but the Bruins were able to snag it. UCLA was able to eat up the remainder of the clock to hold on for the win.
Overall, UCLA ran for 280 yards rushing on 36 carries with Collin Schlee leading the team with 127 yards rushing. Harden added 105 yards on 20 carries. Meanwhile, Garbers finished up his shortened game completing 9 of 12 pass attempts for 152 yards and two touchdowns.
The Bruin defense gave up 215 yards rushing to Boise State with George Holani leading the Broncos with 138 rushing yards and two touchdowns. That many yards rushing could end up costing UCLA their top rank in rushing defense for the season, but that won’t be known for a few weeks until Bowl Season is completed.
UCLA now heads into the offseason with lots of questions needing to be answered. The first of which would seem to be: Who will be Chip Kelly’s new defensive coordinator? WIll he opt for someone already on staff or go outside the program again?
But the most pressing question has to do with recruiting as the Early Signing Period opens up this coming week and high school recruiting has not gone well for Kelly. We’ll have to wait and see what happens this week.
Go Bruins!!!
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Chipster finally gets his coveted bowl game win (and bonus). Is he due another extension?
Happy for the players showing some pride and being able to turn things around in the 2nd half to win the Gronk Bowl. But despite their toilet bowl victory and beating up a lousy U$C team this year, the Bruins' overall season was full of disappointments and lost opportunities, thanks mainly to HC Chip Alford and AD Martin Guerrero. Expect both of them to continue the ongoing mediocrity (or worse) next season.