WATCH: Nico Iamaleava, Gary Smith III reflect on UCLA's loss to New Mexico
UCLA is now sitting at 0-3 after another disheartening loss Friday night at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins couldn’t get out of their own way throughout the night. The end result was a 35-10 loss to Mountain West foe New Mexico.
The Bruins were dinged for 116 penalty yards in Friday’s game on 13 penalties. Many of those mistakes came in critical situations proving to be costly for UCLA. Head coach DeShaun Foster pointed to another week of undisciplined play as a big part of the reason why the Bruins remain winless.
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava echoed what his coach said. Plus, he added that it is on the players to make improvements if the Bruins want to get on the winning track.
“When the moment has shown up for us to perform at our best, we haven’t,” Iamaleava said. “And, that’s on us. All of us as a group. The coaches are putting us in great positions to go out there and perform. And, we’re letting the situation around us affect how we’re thinking and how we play the game. So, I think we just gotta get back to going out there and having fun.”
The UCLA defense allowed 450 total yards and 298 yards on the ground to the Lobos. It was a dominant showing by UNM, and the Bruins didn’t have many answers for their opponent’s rushing attack.
“We’re just not starting fast enough,” defensive lineman Gary Smith III said. “It’s really little things. It seems like it’s not, because nobody wants to start 0-3. But it’s been a lot of little details that we gotta clean up. We got the guys to do it, we just gotta get it done.”
