EL PASO, Texas — UCLA’s starting receivers paved the way for their quarterback to seize the game with his own two feet. Facing heavy pressure near his own goal-line, redshirt sophomore quarterback Brett Hundley raced down the left sideline for an 86-yard run in the second quarter that broke a 7-7 tie. Each of his three starting receivers – sophomores Devin Fuller and Jordan Payton, along with redshirt senior Shaquelle Evans – registered key blocks on the run, with Payton’s block allowing Hundley to cleanly reach the middle of the end zone.
Hundley’s sprint, the longest UCLA run in over 12 years, was unexpected during the second quarter of a Sun Bowl game that began as a defensive struggle, but morphed into a 42-12 UCLA win over Virginia Tech. The rest of the UCLA offense managed 34 yards by halftime against the nation’s eighth-ranked scoring defense. A 7-yard rushing touchdown by Hundley, who was UCLA’s leading rusher this season, left a Hokie defensive end grabbing mostly air and supplied the Bruins’ only other first-half score.
“It was a really fun game to play in. Tight, great defense being played in the first half, which I like. Then we kind of broke it open there in the second half,” said UCLA coach Jim Mora of the win that gave the Bruins its first 10-win season since 2005.
UCLA took advantage of an aggressive Virginia Tech defense that, according to Hundley, ran a Cover 1 scheme that the team did not give many scout looks in practice.
“Virginia Tech’s a great defense and in the first half, they played excellent,” Mora said. “I think they came after us a lot, and sometimes when you do that it’s either feast or famine. … I think Brett’s 86-yard run in the second quarter was certainly a big play in the game.”
The Bruins’ offense wound up scoring five touchdowns against a defense that allowed 17.4 points per game coming into the Sun Bowl. Leading the way was Hundley, whose 387 yards of offense set a school record for yardage in a bowl game. Big plays, including an interception return for a touchdown by freshman outside linebacker Myles Jack and a 43-yard pick return by senior inside linebacker Jordan Zumwalt, helped to see UCLA through the rest of the second half as well.
A 12-play, 85-yard touchdown drive to put the game at 21-10 stood out as the Bruins’ only drive of the second half to take more than six plays. Hundley’s fingerprints were all over a run by redshirt freshman running back Paul Perkins, with a Hokie defender staying to the outside to guard against a quarterback run, opening up a clear path for Perkins to the end zone with 14 minutes left in the game.
“Our offense has done a great job this year of responding when they need to respond. I think that’s a great credit to Brett and his competitiveness,” Mora said of his quarterback, whose drive included completions on all six pass attempts, including a 32-yard catch and run by redshirt sophomore wide receiver Devin Lucien to cross midfield on a third-and-10.
The biggest play of the half came in the form of UCLA’s last score, which also served as Evans’ final catch as a Bruin. Evans snuck behind a cornerback and safety on a go route, and a 59-yard connection from Hundley to Evans burned the Hokies for a score one more time with 5:49 left in the game.
“They had been sitting on my routes all day. I just told Brett, ‘Let’s run by (the cornerback).’ The safety came over, but it was too late,” Evans said.
The receiver’s touchdown, which Hundley claimed was an honor to be a part of, helped to make up for a potential score on the first play from scrimmage, when a Hokie defensive back made contact with a ball that Hundley put in front of an open Evans.
Hundley walked away from his performance without any notions of the win validating himself as a quarterback, amid talks of him leaving for the NFL this spring. Should Hundley depart from Westwood, his exit would rank as among the most prolific in Sun Bowl history. His 161 rushing yards set a rushing record for quarterbacks in the Sun Bowl game.
“It was truly special to be able to do what we did,” Hundley said. “I have confidence in my ability. … I can handle a lot of things. Just to be able to move the ball down the field consistently and efficiently … is special.”