Two Compton kids, one Rose Bowl story

The Bruins played Nebraska tough, but if Husker fans were a garden tonight, it would’ve been nothing but red roses blooming in every section

PASADENA, CA — A couple of Compton kids walked into the Rose Bowl Stadium to face off in a Big Ten Conference college football game. Two of them left their fingerprints on this game. Just in very different ways.

Nebraska’s freshman quarterback TJ Lateef came home and made the Rose Bowl feel like a backyard field. He wasn’t rattled. He didn’t look rushed. He played like he knew this moment was his. Coming back to the West Coast didn’t shake him. It fueled him.

“It was great and it was like a culture shock. It was like, whoa, it just hit me. It hit me quick, but that’s what practice is for. I got the opportunity to have a great week of practice, so that’s why it was on display tonight.”

That’s the difference. When a kid is standing on the ground he was raised on, and instead of being overwhelmed, he rises.

Lateef didn’t just participate in this game. He drove it.

UCLA should have made the night uncomfortable for him. That’s what you’re supposed to do to a freshman quarterback. You speed the game up. You take him off his comfort square. You force mistakes.

Instead, Nebraska protected him like a franchise. They didn’t hide him. They trusted him. UCLA never really applied pressure. They allowed him to grow more confident as the night went on.

On the other side, UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava had to earn every yard. He took hits. Extended plays. Absorbed contact because he didn’t have the same insulation.

“I’ve played football a long time. I’ve gotten hit a lot of times in many games. I don’t think it affected me in that way. Overall, we’ve just got to play better as a whole and finish games.”

That’s the difference between being protected and having to protect yourself.

UCLA interim head coach Tim Skipper explained the real chess match after the game. Nebraska’s run game forced UCLA to overload bodies in the box. Once that happened, the rest of the Cornhuskers offense opened up.

“When you have 21 going and you have to sell out for him, it makes things easier for him (Lateef). Their ability to run settled their whole offense down. It’s a chess match. We started to figure it out in the second half, just ran out of time,” Skipper said during a postgame press conference. 

And in the middle of this, UCLA defensive back Scooter Jackson — another Compton native — was holding down his side of the field while Nebraska kept attacking the other half.

Scooter finished with just three tackles, but that does not define who he is. This is a junior defensive back who transferred back home to Los Angeles. At 6-1, 185 pounds, Jackson came into this night already with 15 solo tackles, a forced fumble, two interceptions, and three pass breakups this season. 

He is not a placeholder. He is a playmaker. Nebraska simply never allowed him to influence this game. They ran their offense away from him.

UCLA is now 3-6 overall and 3-3 in Big Ten play.

Nebraska improves to 7-3 overall and 4-3 in Big Ten play.

This is what made tonight hit different. Two Compton kids in the Rose Bowl. One protected by his program. One left to fight for every blade of grass. Nebraska built a wall around Lateef and allowed him to mature right in front of everyone. UCLA gave Nico the keys but didn’t give him enough armor around him to close.

That isn’t about heart. That’s about adjustments.

But Compton showed up on both sides of the ball tonight. One kid came back to finish business. One kid stayed home and battled every snap they gave him.

The next time UCLA faces a quarterback who grew up just thirty miles down the freeway, they need to make sure their own Compton kid doesn’t have to fight alone.