All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game: Week 9 vs. Stanford

Bouncing back with a win over the Cardinal, the Bruins were raised up by some stellar performances at the Rose Bowl.

No. 12 UCLA football (7-1, 4-1 Pac-12) blew out Stanford (3-5, 1-5 Pac-12) on Saturday, walking away with a 38-13 win. Taking a look at each unit individually, here are the three student-athletes who have earned the All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game awards.

Offensive Player of the Game: RB Zach Charbonnet

Charbonnet just made a pretty strong case that he is the best running back in the country, let alone with Pac-12.

The powerful running back went for 198 yards and three touchdowns on the ground – tying his previous career-highs with both marks – on 21 carries. Charbonnet also added 61 yards on five receptions, standing alone as the Bruins' leading receiver in the game as a result.

Charbonnet's 259 yards from scrimmage were the most in his career, and they put him on pace for 2,221 scrimmage yards on the season – that would be the most by a Pac-12 player since Christian McCaffrey was the Heisman Trophy runner up in 2015. Johnathan Franklin's single-season school record of 1,734 rushing yards is also within reach for Charbonnet.

Just boiling it down to Saturday alone, though, Charbonnet was an absolute force.

Charbonnet had eight gains of 10-plus yards, and he opened the night with three straight carries for first downs. Of his 26 touches, 13 went for first downs or touchdowns.

On some plays, Charbonnet had to bounce off defenders to stay up. On others, he burst through holes untouched with plenty of real estate in front of him. Even though it was Kazmeir Allen who iced the game with a 72-yard score, that shouldn't overshadow Charbonnet's touchdowns that went 23 and 37 yards, respectively.

Charbonnet ranks No. 3 in the entire country with 137.7 rushing yards per game, and he ranks No. 1 with 7.5 yards per carry.

The former Michigan transfer is in the midst of the best season by a UCLA running back in at least a decade, and Saturday was just his latest game-breaking, highly-efficient outing this year.

Defensive Player of the Game: LB Darius Muasau

It was a great team effort by the Bruins' defense on Saturday, but Muasau made the biggest play of the day.

With UCLA up 7-3 early, Stanford got the ball back looking to retake the lead. On the first play of that drive, the Cardinal ran an RPO with a slow mesh over the middle, which Muasau read perfectly and jumped to get the interception.

That pick led to a touchdown one play later, and it became even more satisfying to watch once Muasau said he was watching that exact play on the bus ride to the Rose Bowl.

Muasau's performance went beyond that one play, though, considering he also co-led UCLA with six tackles. A few of those tackles were pretty powerful, too, and he seemed to be in a great mood in the postgame press conference.

The Hawaii transfer was tasked with running the defense, a role that took on even more weight with defensive coordinator. Bill McGovern was sick and watching from home, and UCLA still shut Stanford down from the first drive until garbage time.

It's been an up-and-down year for Muasau so far, but he seems to have shored up the missed tackles, and Saturday was undoubtedly one of his best performances of the season.

Special Teams Player of the Game: LS Jack Landherr IV

It was a rough day for the Bruins' special teams.

Nicholas Barr-Mira missed a 41-yard field goal. Punt returner Logan Loya muffed a punt. Kickoff specialist RJ Lopez kicked the opening kickoff out of bounds.

So with that said, maybe this is a good chance to shout out Landherr.

The senior has been UCLA's long snapper for 36 consecutive games, rarely ever committing mistakes. The same was true for Landherr on Saturday, with the veteran giving the punter and kick holder perfect snaps every time.

Landherr never really has a chance to pad his stats, but that doesn't mean what he's doing isn't important. He was on the preseason watch list for the Patrick Mannelly Award, and he could very well be named a finalist before the end of the year.

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