UCLA football wants to keep momentum rolling at Nebraska – Daily News

There’s been enthusiasm in the air at UCLA football practices ever since the Bruins beat Rutgers two weeks ago.

Head coach DeShaun Foster and his players have talked all week about energy and are generating it in any 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 just keeping the energy,” defensive back Kaylin Moore said. “We’ve just gotta have energy every day, bye week, practice week, meetings, no matter what it is. We’ve just got to have energy to keep going to the next game.”

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

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 roughly two minutes left in the game to pull off the win.

“We keep talking about ‘it’s all about us, it’s all about us,’” center Sam Yoon said. “Regardless of who the opponent is, as long as we stick to our technique, stick to what we’ve been training for months and months and months, we’ll be all right.”

Yoon is part of an offensive line that seems to be coming into its own in terms of cohesiveness and production in the passing game. The line has gone through multiple configurations this season but has finally achieved some consistency and will likely go into Saturday’s game with the same starters it has had for the last three games.

Quarterback Ethan Garbers is coming off a career-best performance against Rutgers and appears to be fully healthy after the Bruins dedicated the bye week to recovery. There will also be attention on Nebraska’s 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 legs, make plays with his arm,” linebacker Carson Schwesinger said. “We’re expecting a physical team and we’ve gotta 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 passing yards per game. Nebraska has 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 linebacker Carson Schwesinger leads the group 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 rush for an average of 126.4 yards per game and are led by Dante Dowdell’s six touchdowns and 51.3 yards per game. UCLA has limited its opponents to an average of 98.6 yards on the ground this season, which ranks 13th in the nation in that category.