As soon as the crowd spotted him, he became the center of attention.
“Josh! Josh! Josh!”
A small smile crept across Josh Rosen’s face as the junior quarterback walked towards the horde of fans surrounding the tunnel toward the UCLA locker room.
Rosen and the Bruins (5-5, 3-4 Pac-12) had just finished off a 44-37 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils (5-5, 4-3) that was marked by a noted change in the team’s demeanor on the sidelines.
“I don’t know if you noticed it, but not many guys were sitting on the bench – guys were up cheering their teammates on,” said coach Jim Mora afterwards. “That’s something we’ve talked about, really enjoying this cheering, enjoying this game, embracing these moments.”
Players were more excited, more energetic, more positive – even when UCLA fell down 14-0 in the first quarter or gave up a game-tying blocked-punt touchdown in the fourth.
“Sometimes you get caught up trying to worry so much about making a play or a pressure play, and you lose track of the fact that there’s going to be plays made and not made,” said offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch. “These guys are college kids, they’re 18 to 22 years old – there’s nothing more fun than rooting on your teammates.”
It was the first game back for Rosen since he suffered a concussion Oct. 28 at Washington, a development that certainly helped solidify the upbeat atmosphere they spent the week trying to create.
“It’s a special time in our lives and I think we need to just kind of lighten the load on our backs a little bit and just have fun,” Rosen said. “Like with the punt block, it didn’t faze us really because we had a particular mindset this week just to have fun and let it rip.”
That’s exactly what Rosen did, rebounding from a shaky first half in which he completed fewer than half his passes to go 15-of-20 for 225 yards and a touchdown after halftime.
Rosen’s improvement throughout the game mirrored the Bruins’ as a whole.
They looked headed for their first home loss of the season in the first quarter when the Sun Devils opened up a two-touchdown advantage.
But junior cornerback Nate Meadors came up with a pick six off a pass tipped by redshirt freshman defensive lineman Marcus Moore, sending the sideline – which was just waiting for something to cheer about – into a frenzy as Meadors celebrated by holding his hand up to his ear to mimic a cell phone.
“We had a lot of fun today and I think everybody could see it,” Meadors said. “We were going out there and having fun and playing like kids out there.”
The presence of fiery redshirt junior wide receiver Jordan Lasley, back from a three-game suspension for disciplinary reasons, helped ignite the Bruins as well. Lasley caught seven passes for a career-high 162 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown.
“Been doing the same thing my whole life – the fall comes, I’m playing football – so not playing with my team, not being out there to help my teammates was devastating,” Lasley said. “It was good to be up, good to be able to help my team.”
That focus on teammates might sound trite, but it was a major focus for the Bruins in the week leading up to Saturday.
“We made a great point of emphasis that we’re going to have incredible energy, enthusiasm, passion for our teammates and we’re going to root on every single person that’s on the field,” Fisch said. “We’re going to make every team feel like they’re playing every member of the sideline and on the field.”
On Saturday, that was a winning recipe.