Nebraska QB TJ Lateef comes home to beat UCLA in his first college start at the Rose Bowl

PASADENA, Calif. -- Nebraska backmost TJ Lateef walked into the Rose Bowl similar helium owned the place, and by the clip his archetypal assemblage commencement was over, helium did.

Lateef was 13 for 15 for 205 yards and 3 touchdowns successful spot of injured Dylan Raiola arsenic the Cornhuskers bushed UCLA 28-21 connected Saturday night. He besides had 31 rushing yards.

“Super arrogant of him,” moving backmost Emmett Johnson said. “I'm excited for his future.”

Playing 25 miles from his hometown of Compton, Lateef was cheered connected by household and friends arsenic good arsenic red-clad Husker fans who dominated the assemblage of 44,481 and chanted his name.

“I had to crook the metropolis up,” a smiling Lateef said.

As the archetypal existent freshman to commencement for Nebraska since 1950, Lateef directed the Cornhuskers (7-3, 4-3 Big Ten) to scores connected their archetypal 4 possessions for a 27-7 lead. He kept his poise throughout, with his lone 2 incompletions coming successful the 4th quarter.

“Just had a what’s adjacent mentality, conscionable breathing, taking it 1 drawback astatine a clip and trying to execute to the champion of my ability,” Lateef said.

Raiola is retired for the play with a little limb injury, but helium sent Lateef backmost location with a batch of confidence.

“What Dylan has done for TJ, embracing him, bringing him successful the fold," Huskers manager Matt Rhule said, "pushed TJ to this constituent wherever helium was much than acceptable for this moment.”

Coming retired of Orange Lutheran High, a backstage Christian schoolhouse successful Orange County, Lateef made a mates casual recruiting visits to UCLA. But helium was impressed by the coaching unit and instrumentality basal astatine Nebraska.

“For their backmost to travel retired here, archetypal start, and astir was perfect, you extremity your chapeau to that kid,” Bruins interim manager Tim Skipper said.

UCLA backmost Nico Iamaleava, who's from Long Beach, said helium and younger member Madden walk clip with Lateef.

“TJ's my guy,” Iamaleava said. “It was bully seeing him shine. I benignant of didn't privation to spot him shine, but helium did a large occupation going into his archetypal start.”

The Huskers didn't alteration their discourtesy to accommodate Lateef's archetypal start. He made his ain work connected the archetypal play of the crippled and astatine different times helium called play-action passes.

“I don’t judge you springiness radical confidence. They gain it and they merit it,” said Rhule, who reminded Lateef beforehand that helium isn't a dual threat, but a triple threat.

“You’ve got an arm, you’ve got feet and a brain,” helium told the 19-year-old. “He made the close checks, the close plays, helium was truly professional.”

Johnson elevated his ain play to backmost up Lateef, piling up 232 all-purpose yards on with 3 TDs.

“He was already super, ace focused, but I told him conscionable instrumentality it 1 play astatine a time, conscionable play football,” Johnson said. “The archetypal play, I was truly excited. The squad thought I was going to get the shot the full crippled truthful erstwhile helium pulled it and ran, I was like, ‘OK, he’s locked in.’”

The Huskers were already vessel eligible and Lateef’s cool-headed show paired with Johnson’s exploits bolstered their hopes of landing successful a top-tier vessel with 2 games remaining successful the regular season.

“They got assurance successful me, I got assurance successful them,” Lateef said. “That’s however we’re going to proceed to beryllium great.”

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