It’s Sept. 5, 2015, and UCLA leads Virginia with five minutes left in the third quarter. Cavalier quarterback Matt Johns takes a short drop and tosses up a sideline fade.
Then-redshirt freshman safety Adarius Pickett – playing in his first collegiate game – reads the quarterback’s eyes, runs to the ball and catches it before falling out of bounds.
It’s Nov. 24, 2018, and Stanford has the ball to open the game as the Bruins aim to break their 10-game losing streak to the Cardinal. Stanford quarterback K.J. Costello scans the field, steps up in the pocket and fires a pass towards the sideline.
Pickett – now a redshirt senior and playing in his final collegiate game – reads the quarterback’s eyes, steps in front of the throw and intercepts the pass, returning it 22 yards.
Save for the 49-42 loss, it was almost a storybook ending to Pickett’s UCLA career.
“(Pickett) – he’s been great, he’s our leader,” said redshirt junior running back Joshua Kelley. “Sometimes when you’re playing, sometimes it’s just God’s purpose. You just get a pick in your first game and then you get a pick in your last game, it feels like that’s not a coincidence at all.”
Several other players also had big performances in what may or may not have been their last game in a UCLA uniform.
Graduate transfer quarterback Wilton Speight capped off a comeback season within a comeback season – he only played four games for Michigan in 2017 after breaking three vertebrae last September. He suffered another back injury in the Bruins’ season opener that knocked him out for five more games.
Speight used up his remaining NCAA eligibility, but he totaled career-highs with 29 completions, 47 pass attempts and 466 passing yards. Between UCLA’s final possession of the first quarter and midway through the fourth quarter, he completed 25-of-30 throws for 362 yards.
But the performance did little to soothe the sting of losing.
“It was fun during the game because up until the last play of the game, I thought we were going to win,” Speight said. “When you’re able to slice them apart like that, that’s fun in the moment, but if you walk off the field and you’re not victorious it doesn’t matter.”
Speight targeted redshirt junior tight end Caleb Wilson 15 times against Stanford, including six targets in UCLA’s two desperation drives at the end of the game.
Wilson previously said that he would decide whether to return for his redshirt senior season after Saturday’s game, and he plans to file for a draft grade from the NFL’s College Advisory Committee.
If he declares for the NFL Draft, he will leave Westwood as the nation’s leading tight end in catches and receiving yards after a nine-catch, 184-yard day against the Cardinal.
“It’s what (Wilson) has done for us all year long,” coach Chip Kelly said. “He’s got a knack of getting open and makes clutch plays when we need them. I think he was a big security blanket for our quarterbacks all season long.”
Kelley was another pivotal part of the Bruin offense, and he can also declare for the upcoming NFL Draft. In the week leading up to the Stanford game, he said he hadn’t taken much time to think about his decision.
After hobbling to the sideline with a lower body injury late in the game, Kelley finished with 55 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries on Saturday. His 1,243 rushing yards this year rank No. 10 for single-season rushing yards in school history.
Fellow former walk-on and redshirt senior wide receiver Christian Pabico ended his UCLA career with a two-catch, 31-yard game. Senior defensive back Nate Meadors didn’t suit up due to an injury, but sophomore defensive back Darnay Holmes and Kelly both said the seniors were role models for the team’s hefty number of true and redshirt freshmen.
“We’re really indebted to those guys for what they did and how they stuck to the course throughout the entire season,” Kelly said last week. “When arguably your best players are your hardest workers, it sets the tone for the rest of the group.”