First there was Justyn Martin. The now-Maryland backup quarterback who filled in for Ethan Garbers a year ago at Penn State, playing in front of 110,047 in Happy Valley.
It was Martin’s only start at UCLA before packing up his bags and bowing out of Westwood for a new start.
Time will tell how Luke Duncan’s career with UCLA football (3-7, 3-4 Big Ten) will round out compared to Martin’s, but Saturday will be a day the redshirt sophomore will remember regardless of comfortably losing 48-10 to No. 1 Ohio State (10-0, 7-0).
“It was cool just — haven’t played football since high school (at Miramonte High School in Orinda),” Duncan told reporters. “Happy playing football again. It’s a game I love, so it’s fun being back out there.”
Filling in for starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava — who sat out of Saturday’s game due to concussion-like symptoms — Duncan battled the nation’s top defense (FBS-low 7.5 points allowed per game) in front of 104,168 at The Horseshoe. He completed 16-of-23 passes for 154 yards and a touchdown, while the Bruins employed a conservative approach with Iamaleava’s game-changing plays off the table.
With Duncan under center, UCLA outscored Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Minnesota’s efforts against Ohio State, reaching a two-score tally — a minor positive for a team suffering a bowl dream-ending defeat.
Duncan’s highlight play was also UCLA’s longest completion of the season, a 51-yard pass to Rico Flores Jr. Two plays later, the former three-star recruit connected with Kwazi Gilmer for on a 13-yard touchdown play.
“Coaching staff was just telling me to be me,” Duncan told reporters after the game. “Just play my game … and don’t try to force things. Play the game I’ve been playing.”
On Tuesday, a UCLA football spokesperson said that Iamaleava sat out of the individual portion of practice before returning for the full team periods because the redshirt sophomore quarterback was feeling under the weather.
UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper said before the game, on the NBC broadcast, that the decision for Iamaleava not to play against Ohio State was made on Friday. The Tennessee transfer had yet to miss a game starting for the Bruins until Saturday — and spent a lot of the game talking shop with his brother, third-string quarterback Madden Iamaleava, on the UCLA sideline.
Madden Iamaleava made his collegiate debut late in the fourth quarter Saturday as the clock trickled toward zero.
“At the beginning of the work week he was not feeling well,” Skipper told reporters of Nico Iamaleava, who is day-to-day going forward. “Was out there and couldn’t stay out there — so he went in and we did all the tests and things like that, and it came back, diagnosed with a concussion.”
Skipper continued: “(Nico Iamaleava) went into concussion protocol and never cleared out of that.”
Duncan told reporters that Nico Iamaleava, along with the offensive line, cheered him on throughout the game.
“No one got negative,” said Duncan, who was likely the next man up at quarterback last year behind Martin in the game at Penn State. “No one gave up.”
Depending on Nico Iamaleava’s status heading into UCLA’s home finale — 7:30 p.m., next Saturday against Washington (7-3, 4-3) at the Rose Bowl — Duncan could get at least one more opportunity to rally the troops for a fourth team victory in a season where tallying one win appeared unlikely three games in.