UCLA beats Tennessee in Rick Neuheisel's debut

UCLA reversed a 14-7 halftime deficit and prevailed in OT to give new coach Rick Neuheisel a 27-24 victory over #18 Tennessee in his coaching debut. The Bruins suffered through a horrible first half performance by QB Kevin Craft, relying on a stout defense to keep things close. Craft did a 180 in the second half, who was extremely solid rallying the team to victory.

Craft, who has gone from the teams #3 QB to starter in a matter of weeks, looked very shaky early on throwing four first half interceptions—one of which was returned for a TD.Despite this miscues, the Bruins were only down by a TD at the break thanks to some opportunistic play by the defense who limited the damage from the offense’s struggles.

After picking up a FG in the third, the Bruins roared back to life in the 4th quarter, outscoring the Vols 14-10 and sending the game to OT. Tennessee was fortunate to escape regulation, as the Bruins final TD put them up by 3 with 27 seconds remaining in the game. It took a 47 yard FG by UT’s Daniel Lincoln to force overtime. UCLA kicker Kai Forbath gave his team the lead in the first OT possession with a 42 yard field goal, and when Lincoln missed a 34 yarder on Tennessee’s possession the comeback was complete.

Ironically, the hero of the game was the QB that had thrown 4 first half INTs—Kevin Craft was exceptional in the 2nd half throwing for 193 yards and a TD on 18-25 passing. Much of the credit for his performance has to go to UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who’s about the best in the business working with QB’s. Chow, who became a legend during his tenures at BYU and USC, managed to calm Craft down, rebuild his confidence and refocus him on the gameplan during the halftime break. That’s a pretty impressive piece of coaching.

Tennessee will have an easier time of things next weekend, as UAB comes to down. UCLA, on the other hand, has a big non-conference game against Chow’s former team, the BYU Cougars. There’s been much made of the acrimonious end to Chow’s tenure in Provo so you can be certain that the offense will be looking to test the Cougar defense.