UCLA might have found something in a season wildly veering in the wrong direction.
Justyn time, you might say.
With their starting quarterback sidelined by injury, the Bruins turned to Justyn Martin and watched the redshirt sophomore make smart, efficient plays early in his first college start to keep his team competitive in a game it was expected to lose by four touchdowns.
UCLA eventually wilted in a 27-11 loss to No. 7 Penn State on Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium, undone by many of the same issues that have plagued it all season, but there was no doubting the promise shown by the Bruins quarterback.
Completing his first six passes, Martin immediately showed command of an offense that often looked like a foreign language to incumbent starter Ethan Garbers. Martin didn’t force throws or make bad decisions while playing in one of college football’s most unforgiving environments against one of its best teams.
There would be no storybook ending. Martin could not engineer a comeback, even if he did display plenty of grit on his team’s final drive. The quarterback showed his speed when he twice ran for first downs, converted a fourth down with a pass to Logan Loya and connected with Loya again on a one-yard touchdown pass with 16 seconds left.
Read more: ‘I just don’t want to let down this team’: Ikaika Malloe is driven to fix UCLA’s defense
It was UCLA’s first offensive touchdown since the second quarter of its loss to Louisiana State last month, ending a nine-quarter drought. The Bruins (1-4 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) managed only 106 of their 260 yards in the second half against the Nittany Lions (5-0, 2-0).
But on the whole, Martin was efficient in completing 22 of 30 passes for 167 yards.
The question now: Do the Bruins stick with Martin or go back to Garbers once the redshirt senior recovers from the unspecified injury he suffered last week against Oregon. Garbers threw a few casual passes during warmups, but it was clear it was going to be Martin’s offense to run based on the number of repetitions he took and the heavy amount of teaching he received from quarterbacks coach Ted White.
Martin received a major assist from a reformulated offensive line. Niki Prongos took the injured Reuben Unije’s spot at left tackle, Sam Yoon made his first career start at center and Josh Carlin moved from center back to right guard, the spot he occupied last season.
Showing no early jitters, Martin completed nine of his first 11 passes while quieting a crowd of 110,047 that was the 10th biggest in the history of this stadium. UCLA led everywhere but the scoreboard after a first quarter in which it topped Penn Statein total yardage, 72-28, notched the game’s only sack and stopped the Nittany Lions on both of their third-down attempts.
Trailing, 7-0, the Bruins appeared on the verge of possibly pulling into a tie late in the second quarter after Martin completed a short pass to T.J. Harden on a wheel route that turned into a 53-yard catch-and-run to Penn State’s 10-yard line. On third and goal at the seven, Martin scrambled for a one-yard gain instead of forcing a pass into tight coverage, allowing Mateen Bhaghani to kick a 25-yard field goal that shaved Penn State’s lead to 7-3.
UCLA’s defense also showed early promise just days after UCLA defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe made an impassioned, emotional pledge to fix what was wrong. But Penn State drove quickly for a touchdown on its final drive of the first half, with quarterback Drew Allar completing passes of 12, 24 and 25 yards before finding Tyler Warren for a five-yard touchdown that pushed the Nittany Lions’ advantage to 14-3.
Penn State was just getting started.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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