The Improbability of UCLA’s Incredible Upset Win Against Penn State

On Saturday, UCLA pulled off the biggest upset of the college football season, beating then-No. 7 ranked Penn State 42-37.

It was the first time since 1985 that a winless 0-4 program had beaten a top-10 team. 

The feat wasn’t just improbable because of the circumstances on the field. It was improbable because of the circumstances off the field: a coaching staff in disarray, an athletic department saddled with debt, a lackluster NIL strategy, and an athletic director who had lost the trust of fans and donors.

One win can’t erase the structural problems UCLA faces. But it can perhaps buy time—in case players were considering transferring, or if the university was considering firing athletic director Martin Jarmond.

UCLA kicked off the 2025 season after a dismal 5-7 season last year under first-time head coach DeShaun Foster. The Bruins had been embroiled in off-season drama in order to obtain their new quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, who had abruptly left Tennessee after reports surfaced that his handlers were attempting to renegotiate his massive NIL (name, image, and likeness) contract. Iamaleava settled for a contract for millions less than what he would have made at Tennessee.

The Bruins went winless for four straight games. After the third, the athletic department fired Foster and promoted Tim Skipper to interim head coach—setting off a string of coaching staff resignations, an open transfer portal, and news that a mounting number of recruits decided to decommit.

Fans and donors have also begun to call for Jarmond’s firing, who had fallen out of favor since he secured a Nike partnership that brought the Jordan brand to UCLA and a bid for the Bruins to join the Big Ten. The list of grievances, according to an LA Times report: not firing previous head coach Chip Kelly and fumbling the hiring of his replacement; spending big despite a $219.6 million athletic department deficit over six years; and failing to promote a good NIL strategy. (One group of angry fans commissioned a truck to be driven through the Westwood campus to call for his firing two weeks ago.) 

When kickoff came on Saturday at the Rose Bowl, the scene was brutal.

Only about 39,000 fans had shown up, not even coming close to filling a Rose Bowl, which has capacity near 90,000. Overhead, a plane flew a banner calling for Jarmond’s firing. The team was led by a quarterback who appeared to have made a huge mistake by leaving Tennessee.

Skipper was only in his second game. Offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel had been a tight ends coach just four days earlier—his job is so new that as of Monday morning, his bio on UCLA’s website still read “assistant head coach, tight ends.”

Despite all this, the Bruins jumped out to an early 10-0 lead thanks to a touchdown drive and onside kick recovery that ballooned to 27-7 at halftime. The Bruins held on against a potential comeback by the Nittany Lions for a 42-37 win. Iamaleava redeemed himself too with five touchdowns.

Neuheisel, a former UCLA quarterback himself and longtime coach considered a Bruins institution, was showered with Gatorade and hoisted onto the shoulders of his players. Skipper later described the scene in the locker room as akin to Mardi Gras. The players even cheered Jarmond, who presented the game ball to Skipper postgame.

The Bruins face off against an unranked Michigan State program on Saturday—perhaps another opportunity to turn their season around.