The first four weeks for the UCLA football team were a nothingburger.
But Saturday at Michigan State? Jalen Berger. As in former Michigan State running back Jalen Berger.
The redshirt senior enjoyed seeing his former Spartans teammates, greeting them with three touchdowns as part of UCLA’s 38-13 dispatching of Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich.
After spotting the Spartans a 7-0 lead, the Bruins rattled off 38 unanswered points to stun Michigan State in front of its homecoming crowd and hand the Spartans their third consecutive loss.
The Bruins, seemingly on life support and jolted back to relevance and into the win column with last week’s upset of then-No. 7 Penn State, are now 2-1 in the Big Ten and a team not to be taken lightly despite their 2-4 record.
With Berger leading the way with 89 yards on 12 carries, UCLA rushed for 234 yards. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava completed 16 of 24 passes for 180 yards with three touchdowns.
Not to be outdone, the defense made four fourth-down stops, forced one momentum-changing turnover and limited the Spartans (3-3, 0-3) to 253 yards – 166 passing and 87 rushing.
The Spartans, down 24-7 at halftime and in desperation mode, turned the ball over on downs on their first two drives of the second half. UCLA cashed in both opportunities – the first with a 1-yard scoring run by Jaivian Thomas at 3:55 of the third quarter, the next on Iamaleava’s second touchdown pass to Berger from 13 yards out for a 38-7 lead with 1:44 to play in the third quarter.
None of that seemed likely from the get-go. As a 7½-point underdog, UCLA started the game with three incomplete passes, punted and then watched the Spartans drive 59 yards in 10 plays for a 7-0 lead on former Downey High quarterback Aidan Chiles’ 2-yard touchdown run.
This was the UCLA football team people came to know after its abysmal 0-3 start led to the firing of head coach DeShaun Foster and the mutual departure of defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe and, after a 17-14 loss to Northwestern dropped the Bruins to 0-4, offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri as well.
But these are Tim Skipper’s Bruins. The interim head coach, who hired Kevin Coyle to oversee the defense, bumped tight ends coach Jerry Neuheisel to offensive play-caller and brought back former Bruins offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone to assist Neuheisel, has infused energy and attitude to a once-listless program.
Mateen Bhaghani booted a 47-yard field goal to get the Bruins on the board after a 10-play, 46-yard drive at 4:26 of the first quarter.
Suddenly with a spring in their step, the Bruins’ defense showed their teeth and stuffed Spartans running back Makhi Frazier on 4th-and-1 at the Michigan State 34-yard line. Anthony Woods replied with a 17-yard run. Two players later, Berger took a direct snap and scampered 16 yards into the end zone for a 10-7 lead with 1:25 left in the first quarter.
The defense rose again, yielding just four yards and forcing the Spartans to punt. Iamaleava then engineered a 63-yard drive, capping it with a 3-yard scoring strike to Berger and a 17-7 lead.
The defense got another stop, this time Devin Aupiu sacking Chiles and forcing a fumble recovered by fellow defensive lineman Siale Tupaki at the Spartans’ 42-yard line. Eight plays later, Iamaleava hit Titus Mokiao-Atimala for a 12-yard touchdown to go up 24-7 with 4:09 until halftime.
The Spartans finally scored again early in the fourth quarter when Alessio Milivojevic found Nick Marsh for a 5-yard touchdown, with the missed extra point summarizing their long day against the surging Bruins.