UCLA Football: Bruins Struggling With Fresh NCAA Rule

The club faced fresh challenges during an eventful Game 1 win.

Your UCLA Bruins did secure a win in their 2023 season opener, over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. But it was a somewhat pedestrian 27-13 victory over a significant underdog, and it took the efforts of two quarterbacks to get there.

Jack Nelson of The Daily Bruin writes that one particular impediment to UCLA's success, also, was time management, and speculates that that was in part a result of an expedited clock.

The NCAA instituted three fresh rules this past spring, designed to speed up the college game. The biggest deal, per Nelson at least, is that, even after a first down, the game clock keeps ticking until each half reaches its two-minute warning. A player running the ball to the sideline during game time pauses the clock.

Current starting quarterback Ethan Garbers, a redshirt junior who was roundly outplayed by true freshman Dante Moore, reflected on how the new rule changed their approach to the matchup.

“It’s a big rule change, and the flow of the game is much faster,” Garbers said. “When you’re out there playing, you look up, and it’s already the third quarter and you’re like, ‘Oh wow.’”

As one of the slower clubs in the NCAA (across head coach Chip Kelly's five seasons at the helm, the team is the 33rd-fastest nationwide), UCLA would seem to be at something of a disadvantage under this new rule.

But Kelly, for one, is open to making adjustments.

“We’ve got to adapt, we’re not going to be dinosaurs,” Kelly said. “Dinosaurs didn’t adapt, they died. We’re not going to die.”