LOS ANGELES — Amid a fifth consecutive defeat for the UCLA football team, a sign of hope for the rest of the season emerged from its loss to Minnesota on Saturday.
The Bruins’ passing game doesn’t lack perimeter playmakers, with the likes of veterans J. Michael Sturdivant and Logan Loya and younger targets Kwazi Gilmer and Rico Flores Jr. roaming the outside. But Sturdivant and Loya have had catchless games this season and Flores Jr. has missed time due to injury.
But in the Bruins’ 21-17 shortcoming against the Golden Gophers, the quarterback-to-receiver connection was the most fruitful it had been all season.
Ethan Garbers threw for a career-high 293 yards and completed 69.4% of his passes against Minnesota, which entered the game as the top-ranked passing defense in the nation.
Loya, who had four catches for 45 yards on Saturday, had called for Sturdivant to be more involved in the offense. His message was heard as Sturdivant, coming off back-to-back games without a catch, logged a team-high seven receptions for 107 yards and a touchdown, his first score of the year.
“We have a lot of talent in our receiving room this year. It’s a blessing to have guys like that push me in practice and me being able to push them in practice and grow every day,” Sturdivant said after Tuesday’s practice. “Having that talent outside, we can obviously help this team win games. We just have to continue doing our part in the run game, helping blocking and when the ball comes our way, we got to make plays for this offense.”
Sturdivant’s 42-yard touchdown reception came on a play-action design, and Garbers had enough time in the pocket to find Sturdivant as he ran past his defender.
Garbers has shown the ability to throw the deep ball when given enough time, but it’s not a luxury he’s had most of the season.
Still, Sturdivant remains encouraged by the offensive line and believes more of those big-play opportunities will arise.
“We have the utmost confidence in our offensive line. They’re working their ass off every day in practice and they’re learning their blocks, getting their reads down,” Sturdivant said. “I have a lot of confidence in them that when the big plays come that they’re going to be able to hold up their blocks.”
While the passing game showed signs of improvement against Minnesota, the run game continued to struggle.
The Bruins totaled just 36 yards on the ground and they rank in the bottom three in college football with an average of 59.5 rushing yards per game.
Sturvidant said it’s not only up to the offensive line to help get the ground game going, but the receivers need to continue to block to help clear the way for a big run.
“We just have to help on the perimeter with blocking. The biggest runs, obviously the O-line has to make their blocks too, but once the running back breaks through the line, they have to depend on us to break it to make those extra yards,” he said. “We don’t know which play they’re going to break it on, so we have to be ready every play to go out on and block and help our running backs succeed.”
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UCLA Athletics’ NIL restructure
The UCLA Athletic Department announced changes Tuesday to the NIL collective supporting UCLA student-athletes.
NIL funds will now be siphoned to three different areas: the Men of Westwood fund for men’s basketball, the Champion of Westwood fund for women’s basketball and Olympic sports and the new addition of Bruins for Life, which will be exclusive to football.
James Washington, a former UCLA football safety and two-time Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys, will be in charge of the Bruins for Life fund along with John Manuck, a longtime UCLA Athletics supporter.