PASADENA, Calif. (AP) 鈥 Wayne Knight ran for 177 yards and two touchdowns, Nico Iamaleava threw two of his three touchdown passes to Semaj Morgan, and UCLA defeated Purdue 52-38 on Saturday night in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
A balanced offense helped Bob Chesney join Terry Donahue in 1976 and Jim Mora in 2012 as the third Bruins coach in the past 50 years to start his tenure 3-0.
UCLA ran for 369 yards, and Iamaleava was 19-of-31 passing for 276 yards with his first scoring throws of the season. Anthony Woods鈥 16-yard touchdown run on UCLA's first drive of the third quarter put the Bruins back in front after falling behind for the only time.
Ryan Browne had 378 yards passing and three touchdowns 鈥 two of which went to Xavier Townsend 鈥 with an interception, but the Boilermakers (1-2) dropped their 19th consecutive conference game. Fame Ijeboi added two touchdown runs.
UCLA linebacker Sammy Omosigho forced two fumbles, taking his total to four during a three-game streak. Knight turned each of those extra possessions into touchdowns, and they proved to be the difference in a track meet where Purdue finished with 488 yards.
The takeaway
Purdue: Townsend was electric in the open field, starting with a dump off over the middle against a jailbreak blitz that he turned into a 75-yard touchdown reception on the Boilermakers鈥 first play from scrimmage. Townsend ended up with six receptions for 162 yards, 152 of which came after the catch.
UCLA: The Bruins hadn鈥檛 topped 500 total yards in a game since the 2023 LA Bowl in what ended up as Chip Kelly鈥檚 final game as head coach. UCLA finished with 645 total yards, its most in a conference game since a wild comeback win at Washington State in 2019.
Up next
Purdue: Hosts No. 3 Notre Dame next Saturday.
UCLA: Visits Maryland next Saturday.
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