UCLA football looks to keep momentum in Nebraska – San Bernardino County Sun

Excitement has been in the air at UCLA football practice since the Bruins beat Rutgers two weeks ago.

Head coach DeSean Foster and his players have been talking all week about energy and generating it in every way possible, whether behind the scenes in meeting rooms or during pre-practice hype sessions led by performance coach Corey Miller.

“It’s all about conserving energy,” defensive back Kaylin Moore said. “We just have to have energy every day, bye week, practice week, meets, it doesn’t matter what it is. We just have to have energy to move on to the next game.”

The Bruins (2-5 overall, 1-4 Big Ten) finally snapped their winless streak and picked up their first win as a member of the Big Ten Conference by defeating Rutgers before heading into a bye week. Their momentum will be tested Saturday when the Bruins travel to Nebraska (5-3, 2-3) for a 12:30 p.m. opener.

UCLA has adjusted to the Big Ten Conference travel schedule and has a relatively short trip to the Midwest. Nebraska has some energy of its own heading into the game after nearly upsetting No. 4 Ohio State last weekend. The Buckeyes intercepted a pass with about two minutes left in the game to clinch the victory.

“We keep talking about ‘it’s all for us, it’s all for us,'” center Sam Yoon said. “No matter who the opponent is, as long as we stick to our technique, stick to what we’ve been practicing for months and months and months, we’ll be fine.”

Yoon is part of an offensive line that seems to be starting to come into its own in terms of cohesion and productivity in the passing game. The line has gone through multiple configurations this season, but has finally found some consistency and will likely enter Saturday’s game with the same starters it has had in the last three games.

Quarterback Ethan Garbers is coming off a career-best performance against Rutgers and appears fully healthy after the Bruins devoted their bye week to rebuilding. Attention will also be paid to Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola — the freshman has started every game this season.

“Their quarterback is a relatively big deal just because he’s a young freshman quarterback and he can make plays with his feet, make plays with his arm,” defensive end Carson Schwessinger said. “We expect a physical team and we have to come in and play physical as well.”

When Nebraska has the ball

The Huskers move the ball down the field using the arm of Raiola, who averages 218 passes per game. Nebraska also allowed him to be sacked 17 times for a loss of 134 yards. Nine Bruins have had at least half a sack this season, and quarterback Carson Schwessinger leads the pack with two sacks. He is also the team’s leading tackler with 72 total tackles in addition to 6.5 tackles for loss.

The Huskers are averaging 126.4 yards per game rushing and are led by Dante Dowdell’s six touchdowns and 51.3 yards per game. UCLA has limited opponents to an average of 98.6 yards on the ground this season, which ranks 13th in the nation in that category.