LIVE BLOG: Follow Indiana’s Big Ten Football Game At UCLA

PASADENA, Calif. – Welcome to sunny California! Indiana and UCLA will kickoff in about 55 minutes from the iconic Rose Bowl stadium.

Let me say that seeing is believing when it comes to the lore of the Rose Bowl. It really is beautiful. The many Indiana fans here are getting a treat. Weather is a little bit warm, into the 80s, but apart from that? It’s the Chamber Of Commerce vista that you’re used to watching games at the Rose Bowl on TV.

Indiana 21-0, 421 2Q. If you give these Hoosiers a second chance – as UCLA did with the offsides penalty on fourth down – they will make you pay. The Cross one-hander was the cherry on the sundae for the Hoosiers, who are rolling in Pasadena.

Touchdown Indiana. Justice Ellison rolls in on his second effort from the 1-yard line. Touchdown is confirmed on review.

Indiana 14-0, 431 2Q. Miles Cross does it again. A 33-yard one-handed catch that puts the Hoosiers at the UCLA 1. Perfect touch on the lob over the middle by Rourke, but Cross did the hard work to haul it in. Impressive.

Indiana 14-0, 559 2Q. UCLA jumps offsides as Indiana lined up to go for it on 4th-and-3 from the UCLA 46. Killer penalty for the Bruins who have been their own worst enemy in the first half.

Indiana 14-0, 650 2Q. StatBroadcast live statistics have frozen up at the Rose Bowl if you’re following remotely.

Indiana 14-0, 950 2Q. Bruins go three-and-out. UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers doesn’t look confident out there at all. Threw a pass way too hard on a first down play where he had Bruins open. On 3rd-and-1, he rolled right, waited too long to decide to run or throw, and was forced out of bounds for a sack by James Carpenter. Hoosiers have done a great job to make sure he’s not getting into a rhythm. Indiana takes over at its won 11 after a good punt by UCLA’s Chase Barry.

Indiana 14-0, 11:14 2Q. First bit of adversity for the Hoosiers. Indiana steadily drove into UCLA territory via catches by Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt, but the drive stalled just out of field goal. The Hoosiers went for it on 4th-and-6 from the UCLA 33, but Kurtis Rourke’s intended pass for Sarratt was batted away. Bruins ball.

Indiana 14-0, end 1Q. UCLA drove into field goal range, aided by a questionable personal foul called on Jailin Walker on a hit against UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers. However, a sack by Amare Ferrell knocked the Bruins backwards and Mateen Bhaghani missed a 41-yard field goal wide right.

Indiana defensive starters: DE Lanell Carr Jr., DE Mikail Kamara, DT James Carpenter, DT CJ West, LB Jailin Walker, LB Aiden Fisher, CB Jamier Johnson, CB D’Angelo Ponds, S Josh Sanguinetti, S Shawn Asbury II, S Amare Ferrell.

The first UCLA play occurred so fast, the usual observers didn’t catch who started at defensive tackle and I only caught Carpenter. West is official for now, but if Marcus Burris Jr. started, it will get corrected.

Indiana 14-0, 728 1Q. A dream start for the Hoosiers. UCLA gifted Indiana an opportunity and the Hoosiers didn’t waste it. Did Williams get to the end zone before his knee was down? It was deemed to be so and Indiana has an early two-touchdown advantage.

Touchdown Indiana. Ke’Shawn Williams takes a dump-off pass by Rourke on a UCLA blitz and ran it about 10 yards on what is officially a 14-yard touchdown catch.

Indiana 7-0, 717 1Q. Fumble UCLA! As Ethan Garbers dropped back, he hit his arm on his running back and the ball came loose. Mikail Kamara recovered it for Indiana at the UCLA 17. One play, one turnover forced by the Hoosiers.

Indiana 7-0, 831 1Q. With Derek McCormick out, Alejandro Quintero is handling kickoffs. His kickoff landed at the goal line and was returned to the 17.

Indiana 7-0, 831 1Q. Impressive first series for Indiana. Hoosiers converted three third down conversions in the 75-yard drive, including a 24-yard catch by Elijah Sarratt on 3rd-and-16. Donaven McCulley made an impact when he entered the game, drawing a pass interference penalty on a goal line fade route. Two plays later, Rourke was patient to pick his options and found Cross open in the middle of the end zone.

Touchdown Indiana. Miles Cross catches a 2-yard TD pass over the middle.

Indiana offensive starters: QB Kurtis Rourke, RB Ty Son Lawton, WR Elijah Sarratt, WR Myles Price, WR Miles Cross, TE Zach Horton, LT Carter Smith, LG Drew Evans, C Mike Katic, RG Bray Lynch, RT Trey Wedig.

Pregame – Indiana injuries today submitted to the Big Ten for the availability report, all players listed as out: K Derek McCormick, TE James Bomba and DB Te’Derius Collins are all out. Losing McCormick hurts as he has been excellent getting kickoffs into the end zone. UCLA did not list its starting tackles on its injury report, so the Bruins might be able to run the ball more effectively today.

• Something to watch for today. Tyler Stephens is listed as a tight end and is wearing No. 84. With James Bomba out, the Hoosiers might need him.

• UCLA has won the toss and deferred to the second half. Indiana hasn’t won a toss this season. Hoosiers get the ball first.

• I was speaking to the Indiana student reporters before the game. They were obviously impressed by the Rose Bowl as we all are. To put it in perspective for them, I told them, besides myself, another Indiana media figure was also making his first trip to the venue. Spoke pre-game with Don Fischer, who has never called a game here. He was as impressed with the joint as all of us were.

• The one downside of the Rose Bowl is that it’s so vast, it swallows up the crowd. With 18 minutes to go to kickoff, fans are spread around all over the place with plenty of space to fill. The top sections in the end zones are tarped off. This would be a substantial crowd anywhere else, but because this stadium is so wide, it doesn’t look like it. It makes you appreciate the Rose Bowl game crowd as it’s almost always sold out.

A lot of Indiana fans are in the southeast corner of the Rose Bowl. There is a lot of crimson mixed in with the blue-and-gold everywhere.

• For many of you, this is a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff. However, you quickly adapt to the time change as this is kicking off at 4:30 p.m. PT. I am a night person and won’t be fazed, but I will pay the price when I return to the Eastern Time Zone.

• My press pass gave me pre-game field access and I wasn’t going to pass that up. Here are some pictures.

While I was down there, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti popped out of the Indiana tunnel. He checked out the field for a minute and then retreated back to the locker room. It kind of reminded me of Clark Griswold checking out the Grand Canyon in “National Lampoon’s Vacation”. Cignetti, of course, has coached here before when he was on the Alabama staff when the Crimson Tide played in the BCS championship game here.

• If you’ve not been to the Rose Bowl, I had not been here in previous visits to the Los Angeles area, it’s an interesting place. I had not realized it sits in what could be best described as a large city park. Or land similar to it. It is not imposing from the outside. Memorial Stadium would tower over it if it was placed next to it, but it is incredibly wide on the inside.

The neighborhood it’s in is largely residential. When I came to check out the lay of land, there was a farmer’s market taking place, and the Rose Bowl area was inundated with joggers, walkers and families walking around with their kids. It was a very chill vibe.

• You can see evidence of the wildfires that are burning in the mountains north of the Los Angeles basin in the guise of a vague haze over the mountains, but it’s not overwhelming. I flew into Ontario Airport in the Inland Empire, between two of the fire zones. If you know there’s a fire, you could tell, but if you didn’t know there were fires, you probably wouldn’t have known. Obviously, our thoughts are with all of those affected by the blazes.

• Fashion report: Indiana is in all-white with their red IU helmets. UCLA is in their traditional baby blue jerseys with the shoulder hoop. They have gold helmets and gold pants. One of the best home uniforms in all of college football in my humble opinion.

• Other Big Ten games this weekend: Wisconsin took it on the chin in Madison against No. 4 Alabama as the Crimson Tide rolled 42-10. I can tell you from family ties (Wisconsin native here) that Badger fans are not happy with Wisconsin’s general mediocrity at present.

No. 17 Michigan bounced back from its home loss to Texas, but not convincingly as the Wolverines bested Arkansas State 28-18 at the Big House. The other early Big Ten games were expected outcomes. Minnesota shut out Nevada 27-0 in Minneapolis. Illinois dropped Central Michigan 30-9 in Champaign, Ill. Michigan State defeated Prairie View A&M 40-0 in East Lansing, Mich.

The 3:30 time slot games brought both relief and concern for Big Ten teams. Concern in West Lafayette as Purdue was trounced 66-7 by Notre Dame. Meanwhile, No. 9 Oregon bounced back after two unconvincing wins as they went to Corvallis, Ore. and defeated Oregon State 49-14 in the Civil War game.

The other former Pac-12 rivalry game, the state of Washington’s Apple Cup, was won by Washington State 24-19. Iowa defeated Troy 38-21 in Iowa City, Iowa in another late afternoon kickoff.

There are three other Big Ten games tonight. Nebraska hosts Northern Iowa, Northwestern hosts Eastern Illinois and Maryland plays at Virginia.