The UCLA Football team has faced plenty of peaks and valleys during the Jim Mora tenure. Last season was the first losing season for Jim Mora as head coach of the Bruins. With kickoff nine days away here’s a brief recap of the season.
The Bruins have had some strong seasons as of late but there have always been creeping doubts in the back of the minds of fans. Last season those doubts became realities for the UCLA Football team. Go Joe Bruin takes a dip into the past with the a recap of last season as the Bruins prepare for 2017.
2016 Result
4-8 overall, 2-7 PAC-12
RELATED-UCLA Football: Predicting the starting lineup for the 2017 season.
Game 1 – Loss at Texas A&M 31-24 (OT)
The Bruins came into Kyle Field knowing that they would be greeted by 102,733 screaming Aggies fans. Although Josh Rosen didn’t seem too concerned with the large crowd.
If it wasn’t the crowd, something else got into Rosen as he threw a season high 3 interceptions. The most costly one coming late in the fourth quarter as the Bruins were driving for a late, game winning score.
It wasn’t an inspiring offensive performance as the UCLA Football offensive line was beaten up all throughout the contest.
The game went into overtime and after the Aggies’ QB Trevor Knight scored on a sneak in their first possession of overtime the Bruins were unable to score and lost the game.
Game 2 – Win vs. UNLV 42-21
The Bruins took to the road again as they visited an improved UNLV teams. While the Rebels under second year head coach Tony Sanchez had improved their win total over the past two years, they were still a team in development and an opponent UCLA could use to remedy their loss to A&M the week before.
UCLA RB Soso Jamabo ended up having his best overall game of the season with 90 yards rushing and three touchdowns.
Josh Rosen also bounced back from his game against the Aggies by throwing for 267 yards, one touchdown, and (most importantly) no interceptions.
However the impressive offensive performance had to be taken into context and despite coming together, this team would hav
Game 3 – Win at BYU 17-14
The Bruins’ defense stepped up against an always tough Cougars team.
In the first half, the UCLA Football defense kept the home team off the scoreboard and held their leading rusher Jamaal Williams to just 12 yards.
The second half continued to be a defensive battle with both teams struggling to score. Josh Rosen threw his second touchdown pass of the day to Darren Andrews in the middle of the third quarter to make the score 17-0.
Then the Cougars’ offense woke up with Williams running for a touchdown and, with 37 seconds left in the game, BYU getting one more cutting the score to 17-14.
A failed attempt at an onside kick sealed the game for the Bruins and they left Provo with a well-deserved victory.
The biggest achievement of the game was holding Jamaal Williams to a season low 28 yards on 14 carries. Williams would go on to run for 1375 yards for the 2016 season.
It would be one of the best run defense performances of the season for the Bruins and unfortunately one they struggled to replicate.
Game 4 – Loss vs (7) Stanford 22-13
In recent years, when UCLA fans see Stanford on the schedule, a deep woeful sigh usually follows. In their past eight head-to-head meeting, the Cardinal have won all eight by an average margin of 18 points.
Unfortunately the game this year would not go any better.
Once again, the Bruins’ defense kept them in the game holding Stanford to just three points in the first half. But a struggling offense, for both teams, keep the game close at half.
In the fourth quarter, the Cardinals’ offense came alive just enough scoring the game winning touchdown with 24 seconds left in the game. A last ditch effort as time ran out by Josh Rosen and the Bruins resulted in a fumble that Stanford returned for a touchdown. But the final score did not reflect the game and how close the Bruins were to winning.
LB Jayon Brown and DB Jaleel Wadood would both lead the Bruins with 10 tackles a piece.