2025 PSU at UCLA

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General Game Information

PSU-UCLA FINAL GAME STATS LINK

PSU-UCLA GAME FLOW & SUMMARY LINK

• Game Five of 2025 season—This is the first of five road games for Penn State (3-1, 0-1) this season (all in Big Ten). PSU is coming into this game off its first loss of the season to Oregon in the Whiteout. This is Penn State’s first game ever at the Rose Bowl Stadium for a non-bowl game. UCLA plans for this to be a “Blue Out” game which will be a test of its fan support which has been lean at times this fall due to the rocky start to the season. UCLA, with Tennessee transfer QB Nico Iamaleava at the helm, opened the season 0-3 and fired head coach DeShaun Foster on Sept. 14 and replaced him with Tim Skipper who is serving as Interim Head Coach for the remainder of the 2025 season. Skipper’s season and Big Ten debut was Sept. 27 at Northwestern—UCLA lost 17-14 to fall to 0-4, 0-1. On Sept. 30, UCLA and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri parted company. Assistant Head Coach & Tight Ends Coach Jerry Neuheisel will handle the Bruins play-calling for the first time vs. Penn State (he is the son of former Bruins Head Coach Rick Neuheisel). A win by PSU over UCLA will vault James Franklin (104 wins) past Rip Engle (1950-65) for the 2nd most coaching victories in Penn State history behind Joe Paterno (409 wins—1966-2011). Tony Rojas LB will miss this game and possibly the rest of season with a reported “significant long-term Injury” that he may have suffered at Tuesday’s practice. He briefly missed some game action in the loss to Oregon, and he missed spring practice due to recovering from off-season shoulder surgery.

• Last PSU Game: Oregon 30 Penn State 24 in 2-OT (Official Whiteout)

• This week’s rankings: AP Poll #7 (PSU falls from #3 following loss to Oregon)—AP Poll New Top 5-Ohio State, Oregon, Miami, Ole Miss, Oklahoma with Texas A&M #6, PSU #7, Indiana #8 / Coaches Poll #6 (PSU falls from #2)—Coaches Poll New Top 5-Ohio State, Oregon, Miami, Ole Miss, Texas A&M with PSU #6 & Indiana #9

• 8th meeting with UCLA all-time: This is the second meeting of the two since UCLA became a member of the Big Ten in 2024 and the first on the west coast. PSU is 3-4 all-time vs. the Bruins. The two also played a 6-game home-away series from 1963-1968 that saw the Bruins win 4 times notably thanks to the play of 1967 Heisman Trophy winning QB Gary Beban (3 of the losses, however, were very close including 2 by only two-points in 1965 & 67). PSU won the opening game of the series in 1963, 17-14, on a Ron Coates fourth quarter 32-yard field goal that he had to make twice due to an illegal procedure penalty. State then lost 4 in a row to the Bruins before closing out the series in 1968 at the LA Coliseum with a 21-6 win on regional television (ABC-TV) for the Lions lone win over the Bruins in LA en route to their first unbeaten season under Joe Paterno. Note: the 6-game set in the 60’s also included two of the latest games ever played by Penn State relative to eastern time. The 1964 and 1966 (a 49-11 blowout) losses to UCLA kicked off in primetime in Los Angeles—11pm in the east, so it was a seriously late-night, or two, of listening to the radio play-by-play for Nittany Lion fans. Had it not been for ABC wanting to televise the ‘68 game out in LA, that game too might have been at 11pm ET!

• First meeting ever with UCLA at Rose Bowl Stadium: All 3 road games for PSU in a series with UCLA in the 1960’s (1963-68) were played at the LA Coliseum. Also, Penn State’s five prior appearances in the Rose Bowl Stadium were for the bowl game itself vs. the opponents USC, Oregon, and Utah (1923, 1995, 2009, 2017, and 2023)—PSU is 2-3 all-time in the Rose Bowl Stadium (wins in 1995-Oregon & 2023-Utah). Penn State is 1-2 all-time vs. UCLA on the west coast—the lone win was in 1968.

• The last meeting with UCLA in 2024 at Beaver Stadium: Unbeaten (4-0, 1-0) and heavily favored #7 Penn State knocked off UCLA (1-3, 0-2) in the 2024 Stripe Out Game, 27-11, on FOX Big Noon making Bruins fans rush to eat their Saturday breakfasts ahead of the game. UCLA was missing its starting QB Ethan Garbers. Penn State RB Nick Singleton who was dressed and warmed-up missed the game with a reported leg injury suffered in the win over Illinois, so Kaytron Allen carried the rushing load—a career high 21 carries for 78 yards and a TD from the 1-yard line. Drew Allar passed for 237 yards and a TD to Tyler Warren along with getting a rushing TD of his own on a “tush push”. The defense held the Bruins to 93 yards rushing and kept them out of the endzone until 20 seconds left in the game. Ryan Barker made his starting debut for PSU kicking 2 field goals including a then-career long 40-yarder. The win would move PSU to #4 in the AP Poll just ahead of their west coast visit to USC.

• This is the third 3:30pm EDT kickoff for PSU in 2025 along with the Nevada and Villanova games. It’s PSU’s first and only scheduled game in the Pacific Time Zone in the ‘25 regular season.

  TV Information

• CBS-TV (Paramount+ streaming) Gameday Announcers: Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson with sideline reporter Jenny Dell. Nessler & Danielson also called the 2025 season opening win over Nevada. This is Danielson’s final season handling color analysis. He began with ESPN in 1990 and joined CBS in 2006. James Franklin presented Danielson with a commemorative PSU game ball on the day before the Nevada game. Nessler and Danielson called 4 PSU games for CBS during the 2024 season notably the Big Ten Championship loss to Oregon.

• It is the 34th PSU game “officially” to appear on CBS-TV dating to 1966 (PSU Record on CBS: 22-11). Pre-Paterno era TV information is incomplete, but CBS has televised PSU football games dating back 70 years.

• Under the current TV contract that began in 2023, this is the 8th game on CBS (PSU Record: 6-1). James Franklin is 7-1 on CBS as PSU head coach including the pre-contract 2022 win at Auburn.

• Prior to 1966, CBS did telecast a number of PSU games notably the first ever live football game broadcast from State College, the 1955 season opener at New Beaver Field vs. Boston University (a 35-0 PSU win) which was aired regionally to a reportedly very limited group of stations in the East. CBS also later regionally televised the 1955 Penn State-Syracuse game from Beaver Field. A 21-20 PSU victory that featured legendary Hall of Fame running backs Lenny Moore and Jim Brown.

• This is the third game this season to be televised on a traditional TV Network—The Nevada game was also on CBS and the Oregon game appeared on NBC. Both of those games were also available via streaming services owned by the networks.