Virginia Cavaliers vs UCLA Bruins Match Player Stats On Sep 05, 2015

The Sports Xchange
Sep 5, 2015

PASADENA -- What a storybook start to Josh Rosen's college career it would have been.

On first down, on his initial offensive possession, UCLA's true freshman quarterback executed a deft play-action fake, dropped back to pass and lofted a perfectly thrown spiral downfield that should have been an 80-yard touchdown.

Unfortunately, the ball was dropped by streaking wide receiver Kenneth Walker III, as Bruin fans at the Rose Bowl groaned in disappointment.

It didn't matter much in the long run, as the Bruins rolled to a 34-16 victory over Virginia as Rosen threw three touchdowns on Saturday.

Undaunted, Rosen his team 56 yards in seven plays on UCLA's next possession, completing all five of his passes for 59 yards, culminated in a four-yard touchdowns strike to Devin Fuller.

In what turned out to be a start UCLA coach Jim Mora could not have hoped to be any better when he named the 18-year old Rosen to be the Bruins' starting quarterback.

Rosen completed 28-of-35 passes for 351 yards, connecting with 11 receivers. He was sacked only once and attributed that to himself and not to the Bruins' experienced offensive line.

NOTES: Quarterback Josh Rosen became the first Bruins true freshman to start at his position since 2002, when Drew Olson started and won against Washington. One game earlier, UCLA started another true freshman, Matt Moore, who led the Bruins to a victory over Stanford. ... UCLA's honorary captain for the game was former running DeShaun Foster, who finished his college career as the Bruins' third all-time leading rusher and second all-time in touchdowns. Foster

played six seasons in the NFL with Carolina (2003-2007) and San Francisco (2008). ... UCLA has several players listed on the 2015 Football Awards Watch List. Most notable are junior linebacker Myles Jack on the Butkus (linebacker) and Walter Camp (most outstanding defensive player) lists, and junior running back Paul Perkins on the Walker (running back) and Maxwell (most outstanding offensive player) lists. ... Saturday's game marked only the second time in the Virginia's 126 seasons of football that the Cavaliers traveled to California for a game. The first time occurred Sept. 11, 2010, when the Cavaliers played USC at the Coliseum. Virginia lost that one, 17-14. ... There are 13 graduate students on Virginia's 2015 roster, most in the nation. ... On Virginia's 2015 schedule are four opponents (No. 11 Notre Dame, No. 13 UCLA, No. 16 Georgia Tech and No. 23 Boise State) which were ranked in the top 25 of the Associated Press preseason top 25 poll.