Steve Spurrier reacts to Penn State upset loss at UCLA

No. 7 Penn State was on the wrong side of history Saturday afternoon as it fell to winless UCLA 42-37 in Los Angeles. The Nittany Lions became the first team since 1984 to lose to an 0-4 team while ranked inside of the Top-10 of the AP Poll Rankings.

Saturday’s loss put even more heat on James Franklin, who fell to 15-29 against ranked opponents last weekend as Penn State‘s head coach in the Nittany Lions’ 30-24 2OT loss to No. 6 Oregon. During this week’s edition of ‘Another Dooley Noted Podcast‘, legendary head coach Steve Spurrier touched on Franklin and Penn State‘s disastrous loss to the Bruins.

“UCLA came to the ballpark out there and said ‘what the heck, we’ve got nothing to lose,” Spurrier said. “We got an interim head coach and any of our good players, if they get a chance, they may leave. So, they let Nico (Iamaleava) throw it around. Penn State man.

“Poor ol’ Penn State and James Franklin. Jeez. One of the sportswriters said he kept talking about going all the way to the West Coast and the time change and playing in sunshine instead of nighttime.”

Penn State’s disastrous first half sunk the Nittany Lions

Penn State entered the matchup as three-touchdown favorites. Its trip to Los Angeles was supposed to mark a bounce back effort following the loss to the Ducks last week, but that was not the case. It got punched right in the mouth by a Nico Iamaleava 11-yard passing touchdown to wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer and a UCLA field goal. A Kaytron Allen 13-yard rushing score cut into the Bruins lead, but this didn’t stop them from putting up points in bunches.

Now ahead just 10-7, Iamaleava found wide receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala in stride for a six-yard passing score and then found pay dirt with a 3-yard rushing score on the following possession to make it 24-7. They led 27-7 at the half and looked to be on their way to the monstrous upset.

Franklin‘s Nittany Lions were able to outscore the Bruins 30-15 in the second half, but the first half deficit was just too much to overcome. Trailing by five, they got to the UCLA nine-yard line with 40 seconds remaining in regulation but quarterback Drew Allar was bottled up for a loss of three yards on a 4th & 2 QB keeper.

Franklin gave UCLA coaching staff a ton of credit postgame

“First of all, got to give UCLA and their coaching staff a ton of credit,” Franklin said postgame. “Got to give their quarterback a ton of credit. We obviously had a hard time stopping him all day long, but I think the opening sequence of the game was significant with the touchdown and then the surprise onside [kick] that we talked about all week long, that they were going to take significant risk in this game.

“And that was obviously two really significant drive and play in the game. So from that point on, we were battling, obviously went in at halftime in a challenging situation, came out and then battled in the second half, but not enough to win the game.”

Penn State now sits at 3-2 with its lone wins against non Power-Four opponents.