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UCLA vs. Hawaii Week 0: Social media reactions to the Bruins' big win

Fans were happy to finally start off a season with a win, and several notable Bruins were there to see it all go down in person

Sam Connon

UCLA vs. Hawaii Week 0: Social media reactions to the Bruins' big win
UCLA vs. Hawaii Week 0: Social media reactions to the Bruins' big win /

UCLA football's (1-0) 44-10 victory over Hawaii (0-1) marked the first time coach Chip Kelly earned a nonconference or season-opening win since getting to Westwood in late 2017. With so much returning talent, many were placing a lot of weight on Saturday's game, and for the most part, they didn't seem to be disappointed with the result.

Starting early in the morning, on the first day with college football in nearly eight months, the Bruins were already building momentum, and they wound up capitalizing on it with a blowout win in the Rose Bowl.

A few hours before kickoff, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit predicted UCLA would be a surprise contender in the Pac-12 and that running back Zach Charbonnet would be a major reason why. Week 0 isn't Week 13, so while it's too early to jump to full-season conclusions, Saturday surely didn't prove him wrong.

Once the game got underway, the Bruins caught a nice break on a Rainbow Warriors special teams error and wound up in the red zone. Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson wasn't able to turn it into a touchdown though, and people weren't encouraged to see him start the day off with an errant pass in the end zone.

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From that point on, it was pretty much just became the Zach Charbonnet show. He scored three touchdowns before halftime and people were overjoyed to see the Michigan transfer explode in his UCLA debut.

Behind Charbonnet's big day and a few early scores to open the second half, it became clear UCLA was the better team in every aspect of the game. Again, a win over Hawaii in Week 0 is hardly the time for overreacting, but we'll admit it's fun to play along with how dominant the Bruins looked all day long.

There to join in on the fun was a big chunk of the UCLA men's basketball roster. They were seen before the game in the tailgating area, taking photos with fans outside of the Rose Bowl before kickoff.

More notable, however, were the fans who weren't there.

UCLA had an announced attendance of 32,982, and the number who actually showed up looked like considerably less than that. It was the second-fewest fans at a UCLA home game since the team moved to the Rose Bowl in 1982.

Attendance will surely be a topic of discussion for next week's game against LSU. Reports have surfaced claiming nearly 20,000 fans are expected to show, so the total number of fans in the Rose Bowl should bump up at least a little bit.

Either that, or the Bruins will essentially be playing in a road game in their own backyard.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.

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