5 UCLA players to watch against Iowa football in 2024

IOWA CITY — UCLA did not appear to be the most menacing of Big Ten foes about a month ago.

After eking past Hawaii by three points in its season opener, Iowa’s Week 11 opponent lost five straight games. Four of the five losses were by at least 15 points.

The Bruins are trending up now, however, after back-to-back road wins against Rutgers and Nebraska. As for the five losses, four of those have been to teams that now are ranked No. 14 higher in the Associated Press poll.

Here are five UCLA players to watch as the Hawkeyes take on the upward-trending Bruins on Friday in Pasadena, Calif.:

QB Ethan Garbers

The first half of Ethan Garbers’ 2024 season was not pretty.

The Newport Beach, Calif., native had at least one interception in his first five games. That included multi-interception games against Hawaii, then No. 8 Oregon and Minnesota.

Garbers has been playing at a much higher level over the last two games, however.

He recorded a combined six touchdown passes (and no interceptions) in UCLA’s wins over Rutgers and Nebraska while completing 77.8 percent of his passes. His 383 yards against Rutgers set a career-high.

Garbers has not gotten many favors from his offensive line. He has taken 20 sacks this season. That includes five sacks against LSU and four sacks against Oregon.

RB T.J. Harden

T.J. Harden has been a key part of UCLA’s offense, but more so for his receiving ability than his rushing ability.

The 6-foot-2 running back leads the Bruins with 27 receptions and is second on the team with 241 receiving yards. He had a 53-yard reception against Penn State that led to a field goal drive in the Bruins’ 27-11 loss.

Harden’s numbers in the rushing game have not been as flattering. He has 226 yards this season while averaging 3.1 yards per carry. The Bruins’ 27-20 win over Nebraska last weekend was just the second time this season Harden had more than four yards per carry.

TE Moliki Matavao

Iowa understandably claims the “Tight End U” moniker, but the Bruins will have a respectable tight end as well in this matchup.

Moliki Matavao has a team-high 303 receiving yards, and his 24 receptions are second only to Harden. He has caught 64.9 percent of the passes where he was targeted and has only one drop this season, according to Pro Football Focus.

It marks a significant bump in production from last year, when the 6-6 tight end had 14 receptions and 283 receiving yards.

Matavao arrived at UCLA in 2023 after two years at Oregon. The former four-star recruit appeared in all 26 games during his two years with the Ducks and made eight starts.

DB Bryan Addison

Bryan Addison is another ex-Oregon player who found a major role on DeShaun Foster’s roster.

Addison made the move from Eugene to Westwood in 2023 after four years with the Ducks. He already has taken more defensive snaps in 2024 as one of UCLA’s starting safeties than he did in 2022 and 2023 combined, per PFF.

Addison delivered one of the more exciting plays of UCLA’s 2024 season when he picked off Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and returned the interception 96 yards for a touchdown. He also tipped the pass that allowed teammate Kaylin Moore to grab the game-clinching interception last week against Nebraska.

LB Carson Schwesinger

Carson Schwesinger arrived at UCLA in 2021 as a walk-on without any ratings from the major recruiting websites. Now in 2024, Schwesinger is a team captain and one of the most productive linebackers in the country.

The Moorpark, Calif., native leads the Big Ten and is fifth in the country with 10.6 total tackles per game. He has 32 of what PFF defines as stops — “tackles that constitute a ‘failure’ for the offense — which also leads the Big Ten.

Schwesinger is unsurprisingly one of 15 semifinalists for the Butkus Award, which goes to the best linebacker in college football. (Iowa’s Jay Higgins is one of the other semifinalists.)

His senior season has been especially impressive considering he only took 17 defensive snaps in 2023, according to PFF.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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