The 2008 UCLA season began the Rick Neuheisel era at UCLA. After the team let go of long-time head coach Karl Dorrell, they were looking to kickstart the program again with a big hire. Neuheisel was a UCLA alum that played quarterback for the Bruins. He also was an accomplished coach that built up the Colorado program and then had Washington in championship contention. Bruins fans were excited to be getting a coach that would be eager to do the same for them.
2008 didn’t start the era well, as they went 4-8 and struggled on offense and defense. But there wasn’t room for any panic. It is very rare that a coach comes in and wins right away. This wasn’t the NIL era where you can go handpick players with money and opportunities. You had to use the team that you had and any new recruits coming in. So, a rebuild took a lot longer in this era. Dorrell really left the cupboard empty, and Neuheisel tried to piece it together.
On this day in 2008, BYU laid down the biggest G5 vs P5 thrashing in NCAA history; destroying UCLA 59-0.
— CougarStats (@CougarStats) September 13, 2024
Max Hall threw a record-tying 7 TDs and BYU scored 35 points in a 13:27 stretch spanning the 1st and 2nd quarters. pic.twitter.com/CfVCqDyT0m
The highlight of the season was going down to Tennessee in week one and getting a win against the No. 18 Volunteers. After that, the consistency really struggled as UCLA was not able to win back-to-back games all season long. Kevin Craft struggled heavily at quarterback as he only had 7 touchdowns compared to 20 interceptions. The team only had 3,399 total yards of offense on the season which was only 283.2 per game. Showing their inability to move the ball at all which led to lack of points.
Seems like a good time to throwback to Sep 1 2008, when UCLA hosted Arian Foster and Tennessee, beating the Volunteers 27-24 to open the season.
— The Secret Bruin Society 🎙️ (@sbsbruinsociety) April 21, 2025
UCLA overcame FOUR first half INTs thanks to an epic performance by the Bruin D led by DeWayne Walker.
Fun fact: This was in the… pic.twitter.com/K8eCRYNmrB
They had a bottom 10 offense in the nation and a defense that struggled but showed promise. Little did we know the defense would possess multiple future NFL talent. Alterraun Verner, Rahim Moore, Akeem Ayers and Brian Price were all playmakers in the making. Price was an absolute monster on the defensive line with 14 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. They would all use this season to continually progress into being a really good unit the following year in 2009