Freshman quarterback TJ Lateef leads Huskers to win over Bruins

Freshman quarterback TJ Lateef leads Nebraska to win over UCLA

I’ll, uh, I’ll just just start real quick. I just, um, uh, Dylan got out of surgery yesterday, um, and, uh, uh, talked to him last night. Seems like he’s in good spirits and everything went well. Uh, Gunaratulla got out of surgery, uh, yesterday as well, and, uh, was in good spirits. I saw him. He was in the training room this morning, so, uh, both surgeries were successful, and, uh, we’re hoping and, uh, wishing those guys speedy recoveries so. Did Dylan in particular have any impact on the week before the surgery, talking to the team or being around? I think uh he was *** great teammate, talked to the team in the team meeting. um, I was hoping he’s hoping he can get back here tomorrow. Our our travel plans are very up in the air right now because of, uh. The government shut down and how that might might affect uh air travel, so we’re kind of in some meetings right now trying to figure out when we can fly out there, um, but uh I know he wanted to be here back here if he could before we took off just to, you know, say goodbye to the guys. Is there *** significance for him to go to New York for that? Um, in terms of like oh yeah, I’m sorry, yeah, yeah, no, I, uh, yeah, he, uh, some of the family had *** relationship with, um, to the hospital special surgery, and, uh, our doctors here also they facilitated all that they they knew each other so they they work together with the Giants, so. Elijah he’s he’s been full all week. Yeah, he’s good. He’s been full. TJ had mentioned that the offensive line, um, where some of the guys, the core guys that reached out to him and were texting him support. How, what does it mean, I guess for somebody in TJ’s positions to have offensive line. that Yeah I think um anytime you’re gonna uh undertake uh something big, um, it’s nice to know that you don’t have to do it alone, you know, when you feel like you’re, when you feel like you’re um. Doing something on your own, you know, it puts tremendous pressure and strain when you feel like you’re *** part of *** group that’s gonna go do something. It, it provides joy that you get to get to be *** part of it. And so I mean even out there at practice today, I mean we’re out there in helmets and spiders and Dane makes *** diving catch in the end zone like I’m not used to seeing guys dive in spiders, you know, and, and not in pads, but uh I think there’s *** focus around. Making sure that everybody does their job at *** high level and I think we all are excited not just like hey we’re gonna support TJ we’re excited for TJ and we wanna see him go out there and play, you know, Eric Crouch is out of practice today and he was, he was, he was talking to TJ Hey, let it rip, man. So I think we’re excited to see what he can do. When you’ve had freshman quarterbacks have to step in, uh, in the past, I mean, what, what are some things that you like to see early on in the game that the settling in? Yeah, I mean, I played *** freshman quarterback at Temple my first year. I played *** freshman quarterback at Baylor. I played *** freshman quarterback here last year, um, you know, uh, I just think part of it is, is as, as *** coaching staff, you know, doing the things that they’re most comfortable with, you know, maybe not the best play for this coverage, but the best play for that person. I think, um, you know, TJ’s unbelievably um. Unbelievably adept in this offense. Thankfully, you know he was here this spring. He has *** really good feel for it. We’ve given him reps all year long. He’s played in *** couple games, um, you know, you can go out there and say, hey, you know, don’t turn the ball over, don’t do this, don’t do that, and then he’ll play *** game of don’t. We’re gonna go, we’re gonna go play, and, uh, to me this is, uh, this is an amazing opportunity for our team, um, to, uh, to just let it rip and go play and so, um, I’m excited for him. What have you seen out him just in terms of being *** leader and, and kind of going from the, the #2 guy to the guy. Yeah, I think that he just has to play, you know, we don’t, you know, he does, we have, we have tremendous leadership. We have captains, we have an ownership group that kind of like our unity council, they, they, they, they’re the ones, you know, um, leaders insert themselves into the point of friction, you know, when there’s stress and when there’s friction, leaders step up and run into that void and so my whole thing with, uh, TJ is just, just play ball, man. Like the best thing he can do is lead by being in the meeting room. By taking extra reps, he came up to me after Tuesday, you know, we do good on good on Tuesdays. You call team compete. He said, Hey coach, should we get that on Wednesday, please? You know, I want *** couple more fast live reps and so, you know, just the fact he’s willing to say that to me and asset to me is awesome, you know, to me shows maturity and, uh, you know what I, what I’ll say is, you know, coming out of Orange Lutheran, coming out of the conference he played, and he came here very prepared for all this, you know, um, he’s, he’s *** grateful young man he’s humble, but he’s confident and so, um. I think, uh, I think the other guys will pick up the slack in terms of all those other areas and he’ll just, he’ll just hear the play call execute the play call and, um, I like what Das done like they haven’t, they haven’t dumbed it down, man. He’s got checks, he’s got things built in, he’s got all kinds of things. It’s like, hey, we’re gonna go play quarterback. With the last couple of days, who on offense, whose voice is kind of cool. Yeah, I thought the receiving cores, I mean, you know, Jacore is really one of the heartbeat type guys on our offense, you know, Isaiah, um, uh, Dane, you know, I’m, I’m kind of, I, I like to during practice. I like to go to the defensive field and watch the defensive practice and then watch the offensive practice on tape and then the defensive practice on tape and I bounced back and forth, but as I walked over the offensive field *** lot, um, they had unbelievable energy. I mean, uh, yelling, screaming, talking trash, having fun, um. Obviously our offensive line, you know, those guys are, um, they’re, they, they, they have leadership, uh, throughout them, but, uh, I thought, you know, those guys and, you know, Emmett, Luke, you know, we have, we have so many guys that are just respected. I just think everyone’s to embrace the idea of. No one has to do this. We all just have to do just *** little bit more to make sure we take the strain off of TJ, so you know, when, when he makes *** throw we gotta win *** 50/50 ball, you know, we gotta make *** catch. We got, we gotta make those plays. Defense has to get the stop and flip the field for us. Special teams have to show up and um, if we all take that approach, we have *** good chance. With with TJ’s added mobility, is there any extra like emphasis or talk just about sliding or protecting yourself just so we can make it through the entire game? Yeah, um, you know, those guys are already trained on those things. I, I really struggle with like adding things like in week 10, you know what I mean? So, um, the biggest thing that showed up last game was he the ball was punched out of his hands twice as he was running to the sidelines. You had the ball on the inside arm in the right hand it was punched out so. You know, you can’t over rep that or also you’ll have *** sore arm only, you know, um, but you know, getting him to understand that like, hey, you know, there’ll be times in this game where you’re gonna run probably and um ball security is paramount kind of going back to your question like, hey, what do you, but what I don’t wanna do is start putting things in his head, you know, just, just do what you’re trained to do. I mean that’s, that’s so much what. What good teams do and good players do is they just trust themselves. They have the poise to believe in themselves and not try to be more than they are, not try to do too much, not try to do too little. TJ’s *** really, really, really, really excellent player. I just want to go be himself, um, but that being said, you know, um, you know, we, we teach our guys when to slide, when to dive head first, you know, how to protect themselves going out of bounds. He just has to apply that training. During UCLA’s 3 game losing winning streak last month, what changed for them outside of the obvious with the coach from *** football perspective? Was there *** big shift that they made? Yeah, it looked like, um. It looked like uh they they really started to use uh the quarterback’s legs um they look like maybe they simplified the offense they’ve taken chances, you know, they, they um. They, uh, faked punts. I think they faked 3 punts. I said 4 the other day, but one was just *** slow knee, so 33 punts, um, but you know, uh, the quarterback is *** leading passer. He’s also *** leading rusher now not that’s not in every game. Some of the games, you know, they’ve, they’ve gotten some zone reads and the tailbacks have hitting big long explosive runs, and they’re converting *** ton of 3 downs now and I think the 3rd down really has been the magic for them. They’re, they’re, they’re, you know, there’s an 18 play drive. They think they completed 3 or 4 of them. And uh the quarterback can do it, you know, he’s an outstanding player. He could do it with his feet as much as, you know, um, so if you play zone coverage, he’ll, he’ll find the holes. If you play man coverage, he’s gonna duck the ball down and run. Um, he outruns people’s, you know, they have *** rat on him, *** spy on him, he outruns the guy. So, uh, it’s *** great week for RD line, you know, they have to produce, they have to show up and they have to pass rush and the challenge when you go against *** mobile quarterback is sometimes guys start to just latch on and try to keep him in the pocket. Well, that’s no way to play football, right? You gotta. You have to get off and beat the guy in front of you and then transition your eyes to the quarterback and and accelerate and so, um, I know it’s been emphasis this week. It’s been emphasis all year mobile quarterbacks versus us, and, um, you know, we’ll have to, uh, we’ll have to play our our best game, especially coming off last week, you know, uh, you know, we, we, we, uh, you know, we, we had to have *** player accounted for the quarterback on every single play, you know, sometimes people ask me about the count. Well, they’re reading the back side of the counter, so I’m sure we’ll see some of that so. You know it’s ***, it’s *** challenge any time you have *** running quarterback and you’re in zone read with gap schemes and zone schemes and they have all of it. So, um, the good news for us is it’s 2 weeks in *** row of dealing with it and um hopefully we can uh put it all together. Some to UCLA might be affected by the shutdown. Is there anything like imminent right now, or you just kind of wait and see to see if that’ll affect you guys? No, um, no, Susan and then we’re gonna get on *** call here in *** little bit because they called us today and said, hey, it probably will be or could potentially be affected. So if we, you know, I just told our guys, hey, what’s next, man? Like if, if we gotta get up at 8 o’clock in the morning tomorrow as as opposed to leaving later in the day, then so be it. We gotta wake up on Saturday and fly there and land and drive over and play like. It, I mean, at the other day of the game, you know, no one wants to hear about your troubles and um. Um, It’s football, so we’re gonna show up and play football to the best of our abilities, but, uh, I think so. I do think, yes, things are pretty imminent. Um, I just don’t think we know exactly what that is and that’s, you know, I’m glad I’m not dealing with it. Thank thankful for Susan Haven and Wish and Thomas and all those guys because she’ll get on the call and she’ll figure out the best thing for us and we’ll just go do it. With the with the late kick, I mean you guys have an 8 o’clock body clock kick in August to anything you learn from that one way or the other, that’ll be helpful because you kind of *** day Saturday. I mean that we played really good in the Cincinnati game that we played really poorly in the Minnesota game. I thought we played really really well last week, you know, it’s at the end of the day it all it’s, it’s really all about your mind, that’s your mindset, you know what I mean, uh, if you’re, uh, if you’re, if you’re ready to play. And what I, what I want, what I want is I want people to watch this game. And say that’s *** team that cares about each other, you know, I mean, I, you know, I, I, as I said the other day, either you’re in or you’re out, right, um, and so I want you to see *** team that goes on the road no matter what time we leave, enjoys being together, enjoys sitting in their hotel rooms, enjoys going to *** walk through and enjoys. That enjoys going to battle against another excellent team knows it’s gonna be, you think about the, the character of the UCLA team, right? They’re 03. They fire their coach who, who was *** player there, *** great player there who they all love, who I coached and I respect, and they’ve just, you know, they’ve just come together and hung in there together, right? And so, um, I wanna see *** team that cares about each other. So I look at it like, hey, the late kick gives you more time. Um, more time together, so, uh, I think, uh, that that’s been my message, and, you know, especially poignant seeing the, the tragic news out of Dallas today, and, you know, seeing, understanding that we, none of us know, none of us know what people are going through. That’s why I think we all should be careful about what we say to people. I think we should be careful what we tweet about people. I think we should be cognizant of what everyone’s going through, and I told our players they should take their headphones off in the cafeteria and sit down with someone and be like, how you doing, man? What’s going on with you? Because somebody that we’re talking to that we’re saying what’s wrong with that guy that guy’s messed up instead of saying what’s wrong with them we should all say I wonder wonder what happened to him because everyone’s suffering and so I look at these opportunities, you know, everyone’s kind of, you know, everyone’s, you know, going through something and we’re gonna go on the road together, man. It’s just *** chance for us all to come together and, and, and be *** team and unite together and spend time together and um, you know, I. I think it’s *** good opportunity for us, but, uh, I, I have to, you know, send my condolences obviously, um, it’s just, uh, it’s just, uh, awful, awful, awful news and, and, um, um, but you also know at the same time I, I, I’ve given the eulogy for players of mine who who who’ve had, had, had the same thing happen and so it’s just you never know what people are going through and um I, I will forever the rest of my life think about the time that I saw Adrian Robinson. Um, right before he took his own life and I saw him on campus and I was walking this way and he was way over there and I was like I need to catch up with Ari because he had got done playing and *** week later, he, uh, he left this world and *** month later I was given the eulogy and I just wish in my life I could go back and just stop and say hey how you doing? And so I, it’s not really what you asked but it’s on my heart and I just share it with the team like um. Just think it’s *** time in this world for us to to be kind to people and at the same time care about people and ask about people. Our generation of kids, my kids, they all just say yeah I’m fine. I’m straight, you know, and it’s just like you really gotta unearth it so I look at um road trips and travel and I look at time together practice as chances to impact young people’s lives and try to be around them, and I would encourage everybody to. I would encourage everybody today with your own kids or the people you work with just check on them because. You know that young man scored *** touchdown just *** couple days ago and on the outside world you think he’s at the pinnacle, but he’s dealing with something and I don’t know what it was but I pray for him, him and his family, so, um, you know that’s the, uh, that’s the, uh, that’s the weight of coaching young people today and, um, you know, they’re going through *** lot, way more than I went through growing up, so, um. Yeah, just, uh, just *** sad, sad, sad, sad story, but sad fate and um again I pray for him, but I also know this there’s probably someone on my team going through something very similar and so in what ways can I be there for them? Can we all be there for them? Um, I think that’s, uh, that’s the blessing we have of of having another week together so I’m grateful for it. I’ve challenged our guys all week to be great teammates, um, to rally together to come together, and not just for TJ but for every single guy on this team. And uh and for the guys even that are on the trip they’re home just be there for everybody so that’s that’s what we’re trying to build and uh it’s maybe old school and kind of it’s not it’s not in vogue anymore. Everything’s about the transfer portal and you know rev share, but I still think young people probably need people that care about him so um that’s never more evident today. So thank you guys. I hope you guys are all well as well.

Freshman quarterback TJ Lateef leads Nebraska to win over UCLA

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Updated: 11:27 PM CST Nov 8, 2025

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Nebraska took down UCLA 28-21 at the Rose Bowl. NU is now 8-7 all-time against the Bruins.It was the team’s first time this season playing without sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola, who broke his fibula against USC.He will be out for the remainder of the season.QB TJ Lateef went 13-15 for 205 yards and three touchdowns.The Huskers have arrived at the stadium.QB TJ Lateef makes his first college start in his home state as the Huskers take on UCLA.Jacory Barney Jr. scored on a pass from Lateef. Nebraska was up 7-0 on the opening drive.Jalen Berger rushed up the middle for the Bruin touchdown. The game was tied with less than 14 minutes left in the half. Emmett Johnson went 56 yards to take the lead back for Nebraska. The Huskers went up 14-7 with about 11 minutes left in the half.Johnson rushed for his second touchdown of the game. Nebraska led 21-7 with less than two minutes on the board before the half.Once again, Johnson came through with a touchdown on a pass from Lateef. The Huskers led 28-7.UCLA’s Anthony Woods scored on a pass from Nico Iamaleava to make it 28-14 Nebraska.With less than five minutes on the clock, Anthony Frias II found the end zone. Nebraska up 28-21.The Huskers have a bye week, and then they will return to the field Nov. 22 in University Park, Pennsylvania to take on Penn State. The time and broadcast information for that matchup has yet to be announced.Make sure you can always see the latest news, weather, sports and more from KETV NewsWatch 7 on Google search.NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |

Nebraska took down UCLA 28-21 at the Rose Bowl.

NU is now 8-7 all-time against the Bruins.

It was the team’s first time this season playing without sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola, who broke his fibula against USC.

He will be out for the remainder of the season.

QB TJ Lateef went 13-15 for 205 yards and three touchdowns.

The Huskers have arrived at the stadium.

QB TJ Lateef makes his first college start in his home state as the Huskers take on UCLA.

Jacory Barney Jr. scored on a pass from Lateef. Nebraska was up 7-0 on the opening drive.