UCLA's Jerry Neuheisel Reacts After Breakout Debut vs. Penn State

The UCLA Bruins achieved what seemed to be impossible, given the season behind them, by taking down the No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions, 42-37.

The Bruins looked like an entirely different team from start to finish, opening the game with an 11-yard touchdown pass, followed immediately by a surprise onside kick recovery.

Former UCLA tight ends coach Jerry Neuheisel was promoted to offensive play caller following the departure of offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri, and the Bruins' offense became cerebral. UCLA went into halftime up 27-7 on the Nittany Lions.

ucl — Sep 12, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins assistant head coach Jerry Neuheisel looks on during the second half against the New Mexico Lobos at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Here is a transcript of Neuheisel's passionate postgame presser:

On where the moment ranks for him as a Bruin:

"It's up there. First thing I want to say is I love UCLA more than anything, and the kind of kids you see that played on that field today is exactly why you love a place like this. We had two days to practice a new game plan, and all they did was believe, and we came out and played as hard as we could for 60 full minutes. Had to take a safety at the end because we messed it up at the end. How can you not love college football when you have days like this? It's special. Special. Special."

On his emotions after the win:

“It would be a better question to ask me tomorrow. Right now, I still haven't come down off of it. Again, it's those kids. It's the fact that I got to spend time and do that. I've been around them for so long. To come together and play a game like that ... I think that's what we were capable of. To see their excitement and their emotion in the locker room, again, just a special, special day. I don't know where it would rank. I don't know how to put it into words. I'm just glad I'm the one who gets to be in it right now.”

On the week after being told he would be calling plays:

"Tuesday at 5:00, I found out that I was going to be calling plays, and then hadn't slept until I got maybe three hours of sleep since then. Just trying to put something they could operate on, that they could execute, and something they could be confident with. I put a lot of onus on number nine [Nico Iamaleava]. Nico brought those guys together. His understanding, his willingness to do the extra work, to learn the game plan, and then to coach those guys when he was at practice the other day. He is special special. We're just glad we got him on our team. It's reminiscent of all the guys who are on that offense and defense. Special. Special."

ucl — Oct 4, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9) runs with the ball during the third quarter against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

On what he told Nico Iamaleava to inspire his performance:

"I'd love to take a lot of credit, that all of a sudden we said some voodoo magic to him. But that's who he is, that's what he's capable of. The understanding of what we were trying to accomplish, and the understanding the why of every play, that's what allowed him to go out and play like that. I would love to take credit, because as a coach, you'd love to say I put my finger on that guy, and that's why he's special, but I'm just going to be honest with you, He's special. And we've just got to facilitate around him. He's got a lot of players who will go to the ends of the earth for him that are going to play on that offense with him. To be around that, you just want to give him space and then just let him go."

On holding onto the lead:

"It sounds harder than it really is. That was the coaching point. That's everything we said on Friday night. This was going to take the full 60 minutes. We talked about it at halftime. We were going to get their best punch, and they came out and played hard. That's a really, really good team. We had to play our best to have a chance to win, and today we had our very best. And now, the hard part is this is not a bowl game, this is not the end of the season. Now you have to go back and get to work on Sunday, you forget all this and you get back to work. So you enjoy this moment like hell for the next 12 hours, and then as soon as you wake up on Sunday morning's it's how do we get the next one."

On changing formations:

"I'd love to take a lot of credit. I think what we were trying to do was get a game plan together where the guys could feel confident, that no matter what look they gave us, that we know exactly who we're blocking and what we were doing at all times. We know that with how special they are on defense and how special they are as a team, that we were going to have to do different things to be able to try to throw them off. I thought our guys just went out and executed the game plan as well as we possibly could. It's just one of those days, and hopefully we've got more of these days coming."

ucl — Oct 4, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9,right) hugs new offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel after defeating the Penn State Nittany Lions 42-37 at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

On what he saw from Penn State:

"I think the plays just had answers. They're a team that likes to mix up all their coverages. They're very good at it, and they play the same percentage of everything. It's really hard to tell what they're going to be in, but you get a natural feel for what's going to happen next and where they're going, and you get into the rhythm of the game. But I thought we did a good job of making sure our game plan had answers for anything they threw at us. When we knew that, we knew we could call these plays without this fear of a 'what if they call this'. To be honest, there's a time where the defense just made a really good call, and we got stopped. I thought the second half, they did a really good job of adjusting to what we were doing.

"There were three possessions there that I wish we could have back where we could have marched the ball down the field a little bit more. A couple of miscommunication errors that happened at the end of the game makes that way closer than it probably should have been, but all things you learn from. I hate to say this, but I had never practiced with the headset in terms of the button to talk to the quarterback, so there were multiple times in the game I'm calling the play, but the headset is flipped up because I'm used to being a position coach, and then I'm pressing the wrong part of the button when talking to them. It was a mess. Hopefully we'll get that cleaned up by next week. It was just one of those days where it all kind of fell into place."

On when it felt like UCLA could win:

"Last night, I knew we had a chance. The way they were in our meetings, the way we had our offensive meeting, the way they took to our team meeting. It was the most enthusiastic 0-4 team you've ever seen in your life. And all of a sudden you just get this delusional optimism where you think we might have a chance at this thing, and there's this belief. I know it's really hard, because if you're not in that environment, you feel like it's doom and gloom. But in that building, everyone believed, and that's all it really takes."

On having Noel Mazzone by his side and back at UCLA:

"To have Coach Mazzone here has been, honestly, one of the coolest things ever. That is someone that I've looked up to and played for, who I moved to Texas for. That is somebody that I can lean on and I trust and somebody who I just love being around. To have him with me, to have him working with the quarterbacks and to be able to bounce ideas off of, awesome."

uc; — Sep 25, 2014; Tempe, AZ, USA; UCLA Bruins offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Sun Devil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

On being carried off the field like he did when he played against Texas:

"I'll make a bad joke. When I was carried off in Texas, I had my mouth guard in the whole time. So if you go back and look at the pictures, I had this blue mouth guard in the entire time. This time, I did not have a mouth guard, so this one I'll put just a little bit above the other one.”

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