LOS ANGELES — UCLA coach Bob Chesney yelled to his team during the stretching period of Tuesday morning’s practice before his team travels to take on Minnesota.
“How do you raise this (stuff) now?” Chesney said at practice. “8-0 is behind us!”
Intense words that carried into the live period for his offense. Quarterback Ty Dieffenbach threw a 35-yard pass to senior wide receiver Aidan Mizell. Mizell made an acrobatic one-handed catch for a touchdown over Scooter Jackson in what became the highlight of the morning.
“It was a good first day and they understand what this is about right now,” Chesney said. “I told them the two most meaningless statistics in college football is the score at halftime. That’s 1A and 1B is your record going into November. November is obviously what matters. These guys were locked in today and played a tough, physical brand of football and we got to get another two days out of them before we get on that plane.”
UCLA (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten Conference) battles Minnesota (5-3, 3-2) on Saturday. UCLA enters as the second-ranked team in the country in turnover margin while Minnesota is ranked 21st.
Minnesota has forced eight interceptions and six fumbles recovered while UCLA leads the nation with 10 recoveries, led by linebacker Sammy Omosigho. Omosigho leads the nation with five forced fumbles to go with his 62 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks through eight games.
The Golden Gophers have an elite linebacker of their own in 6-foot-2 fifth-year senior Maverick Baranowski. Baranowski was Minnesota’s leading tackler in 2025 and is on track to post similar numbers with 62 tackles, including 3.5 tackles for loss, one interception, one sack and two pass breakups through eight games.
“He plays so downhill and he understands defensive flows,” Chesney said. “He understands the leverage of the play that he’s about to see. Their pre-snap thought process is phenomenal. His post-snap reaction is one of the best. He is as physical as can be. Tackles everybody he sees. He’s just a warrior. You watch him out there and he’s what you want on a football team.”
UCLA will also be tasked with stopping a run game headed by junior TJ Thomas and senior Darius Taylor. Thomas is averaging 6 yards per carry this season while Taylor has rushed for five touchdowns. The run game is powered by senior offensive lineman Greg Johnson, who was on the Outland Trophy preseason watch list.
Minnesota junior starting quarterback Drake Lindsey completed 20 of 37 passes for 120 yards and one touchdown in last week’s 23-16 overtime loss to Indiana.
“(Lindsey) is real,” Chesney said. “He can throw the ball everywhere. It’s amazing how quickly that ball appears on chest.”
Chesney broke down the offensive strategy he’s seen laid out by Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck and offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr.
“If you really play that ball hard, it’s going to end up with the out and up. They do a good job of understanding the four-by-one sets, looking at backside slants and understanding what they got to do with flood concepts. They get under center and it’s inside zone, it’s mid-zone, it’s the boot and the play-action off it. It’s the shots and they can throw it 60-70 yards in the air. There’s a lot in here.”
For UCLA to be successful on the road, it starts with bringing a physical edge in practice.
“This is as tough of a team as we have faced and probably will face,” Chesney said. “They are playing at their place, early start and all the things that come with it. There’s going to be uncomfortable moments that are going to occur throughout the course of this game. We’ve got to make sure we’re practicing that mental toughness, practicing that physical toughness and emotional toughness are things that we have to work on now.”