No. 12 UCLA defeated Wisconsin to move to 6-0 and now stand as the last Big Ten or SEC team with an unblemished record.
PASADENA — Wisconsin dared UCLA quarterback Ty Dieffenbach to beat the Badgers in his first start as a Bruin.
The senior quarterback did just that and led UCLA to a 17-7 win over Wisconsin Saturday at The Rose Bowl.
Diffenbach, an Agoura high school alumnus, completed 22 of 33 passes for career-high 264 yards and led three long scoring drives. His previous career-high was 263 yards that he had at Cal Poly last season in a win over San Diego.
“What a job. To stand in there and have the confidence to do what he did,” UCLA coach Bob Chesney said. “The third down throws that he was able to make and see the game clean as can be, it was a really reassuring day for us with him and I’m sure with himself.”
It was Dieffenbach’s first start at The Rose Bowl, a stadium he grew up attending games in that is a 30-minute drive from his family home in Agoura.
“Before the game I was just saying it’s another game, not letting the moment get too big,” Dieffenbach said. “But in the fourth quarter when we were doing the ‘California Love’ and five years ago I’m sitting in the stands watching guys do this and now I’m there. It was special to me.”
UCLA’s running game had been the catalyst for much of UCLA’s success on offense this season, but Wisconsin focused on trying to stop the run and make Dieffenbach beat it. UCLA (6-0, 4-0) entered Saturday averaging 253.2 rushing yards per game which is the sixth best in the FBS and the best in the Big Ten. The Bruins’ 19 rushing touchdowns are the fourth most in the FBS and most in the Big Ten.
Wisconsin (4-2, 2-1) held UCLA to a season-low 120 yards rushing with two touchdowns.
Third-Down Success Key For UCLA vs. Wisconsin
The key to the game for UCLA was its ability to convert on third downs and its defenses ability to limit Wisconsin on its third down opportunities. UCLA converted 13 of 20 third downs and Wisconsin converted just 3 of 11. The Bruins have held their opponents to 13 percent on third downs in their last three games.
“Starting on Monday nights we work every single day on third down,” Dieffenbach said. “We knew they were going to play a lot of man on third down, which is really good for us. Our guys go out there and make a play. That’s what happened tonight.”
Dieffenbach led the Bruins to long scoring drives on his first two possessions of the game. On UCLA’s opening possession, he led the Bruins on a 16-play, 84-yard scoring drive that ended with a 24-yard field goal by Mateen Bhaghani to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead.
On UCLA’s next possession, Dieffenbach engineered a 13-play, 91-yard scoring drive capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Wayne Knight. Dieffenbach converted a third down with a 21-yard pass to Jalen St. Paul to set up Knight’s touchdown.
Wisconsin scored its lone touchdown in the third quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run from quarterback Colton Joseph. Joseph, a Newport Harbor alumnus, ran for a team-high 71 yards.
“That quarterback is tough to tackle in space,” Chesney said of Joseph. “I think you saw that and understood after watching this game how good he is, but I love what our defense did today.”
Dieffenbach led UCLA on a 6-play, 89-yard scoring drive that ended with a 3-yard touchdown run from Anthony Woods to extend UCLA’s lead to 17-7 early in the fourth quarter.
On the drive, UCLA was backed up to its own 3-yard line when Dieffenbach connected with Landon Ellis for a 28-yard gain to give the Bruins some breathing room. Later in the drive, Dieffenbach threw a 33-yard pass to Semaj Morgan.
“We put that in this week,” Ellis said of the 28-yard pass. “The coaches saw it was a weak spot in their defense. I think we got it twice in pracrice this week so it was good preparation from Monday to today.”
Wisconsin was driving in the fourth quarter when UCLA got a much-needed fourth down stop. With 8:10 remaining in the game, Sammy Omosigho stopped Wisconsin running back Darrion Dupree to give the Bruins the ball back.
UCLA defense dominant again
UCLA held Wisconsin to just 66 yards passing and just seven points despite not recording a turnover for the first time this season.
“We’re defending a lot of different things and they showed before and that gave them an opportunity to do a couple things we were maybe not as prepared for,” Chesney said. “We were physical inside but the pass game is what I was impressed with. To hold them to 66 yards and there were moments they were throwing this thing up and our coverage was really spot on.”
Jalen Woods led the Bruins with 8 tackles and had a sack for a 10-yard loss. Omosigho had 5 tackles with a forced fumble. Shane Taylor and Mason Rivera also added sacks for UCLA.
The Bruins held Wisconsin to just 214 yard of total offense which is the third lowest yardage total UCLA has allowed this season. UCLA has allowed fewer than 300 total yards in four games this season.
Chesney Effect
UCLA is 6-0 for the first time since 2022 and Chesney is the first coach in UCLA history to start his tenure with a 6-0 record. Chesney has won 16 consecutive regular season games dating back to 2025 at James Madison.
Chesney is happy with the team’s progress since his arrival in Westwood, but didn’t set any goals or expectations for the team coming into his first season.
“I never put limits on what we could or could not do,” Chesney said. “We also didn’t make excuses like, ‘hey let’s just hopefully get bowl eligible,’ I was never thinking. That’s preordaining an excuse of why you might have success. I never wanted to try to define anything and just go out there and play and be the best that we possibly can be.”
Ellis, who came with Chesney over from James Madison, had a message for UCLA fans who are hesitant to jump on the bandwagon.
“Jump on. Come on man,” Ellis said. “Chesney train. I think the progress we made from January when we all arrived to now is just out of this world. So if you’re not all the way in, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I would get on it.”
UCLA is the last remaining undefeated team in the Big Ten or SEC. Indiana was also unbeaten in the Big Ten heading into Saturday but fell to Ohio State. Georgia was unbeaten in the SEC but fell to Auburn.
