Saturday, November 29
Los Angeles, CA
4:30 PM (PT)
UCLA
at
USC
Key Lawrence
Photo by: Ross Turteltaub
Football to Fight for Victory Bell at USC Saturday
November 25, 2025 | Football
GAME INFORMATION
Venue: L.A. Memorial Coliseum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Kickoff Time: 4:45 p.m. (PT)
Television: NBC
TV Talent: Noah Eagle (play-by-play), Todd Blackledge (analyst), Kathryn Tappen (sideline)
Local Radio (UCLA Bruins Audio Network): AM 790 (LINK)
Local Radio Talent: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Matt Stevens (analyst), Wayne Cook (sideline), Nick Koop (pre/post-game host)
SiriusXM: Ch. 138 or 196
Game Notes: PDF
Live Stats: LINK
THE MATCHUP
The UCLA football team travels across town to face rival No. 19 USC in the 95th edition of the Battle for Los Angeles this Saturday, Nov. 29 at L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Kickoff between the Bruins (3-8, 3-5 Big Ten) and Trojans (8-3, 6-2 Big Ten) is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. (PT) on NBC. Fans in the greater Los Angeles region can listen live on AM 790, the new home of the UCLA Bruins Audio Network.
COACHING CHANGE
Tim Skipper will serve as UCLA's interim head coach for the remainder of the 2025 season after DeShaun Foster was relieved of his head coaching duties on Sept. 14, 2025. Skipper previously served as the special assistant to the head coach under Foster earlier this season.
Last season, Skipper became Fresno State's interim head coach in July of 2024 and guided the Bulldogs to a 6-7 record and a bowl appearance. Skipper was also the acting head coach for Fresno State at the 2023 New Mexico Bowl, which the Bulldogs won over New Mexico State, 37-10. Skipper's previous coaching experience includes stints as defensive coordinator, most recently at UNLV from 2018-19, and assistant head coach responsibilities at Colorado State, Central Michigan and Fresno State. He also coached running backs at Florida from 2015-16 and linebackers from 2017-18.
THE BATTLE FOR L.A. HISTORY LESSON
UCLA and USC have met at least once each season since 1936 (89 straight years). The first game of the historic rivalry series was played in 1929 at L.A. Memorial Coliseum. No other FBS rivalry features two schools in closer proximity than UCLA and USC, with the two elite academic institutions separated by just 11 miles.
• Victory Bell: The winner of the UCLA-USC football game is awarded the Victory Bell. The 295-pound bell originally hung atop a Southern Pacific freight locomotive. It was given to the UCLA Alumni Association in 1939, and in 1941, it was stolen by a group of USC students. A year later, the student body presidents of both schools signed an agreement that the winner of the football game would keep possession for the next year. It has become tradition by each university to paint the trophy the school's colors after reclaiming the Victory Bell.
• Home Uniforms: The two schools have a longstanding history of each wearing their home uniforms, regardless of where the rivalry game is played. The tradition began when the two schools shared the L.A. Memorial Coliseum as their home football venue from 1928-81, and therefore both wore their respective home jerseys. Well after UCLA left to occupy the Rose Bowl for its home games, an NCAA rule came to be that mandated white jerseys must be worn by the visiting team. Former USC head coach Pete Carroll deliberately went against this rule in 2008, and with UCLA's permission, both teams wore their home jerseys. Carroll was required to forfeit a timeout for wearing the wrong jersey, to which then-UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel voluntarily called a timeout of his own. In 2009, the rule was changed to allow both schools to wear their home uniforms. The rule tradition has persisted ever since.
• Other game week traditions include a friendly meeting on the gridiron between each school's newspapers, the Daily Bruin and Daily Trojan, in an event known as "The Blood Bowl", another game between each football program's equipment staffs and the shielding of the campuses' iconic statues (UCLA's Bruin Bear and John Wooden statues and USC's Tommy Trojan statue).
KEY NOTES ON UCLA
• According to Big Ten Network Research, UCLA is just the third Big Ten team all-time to lose its first four games and then win its next three, joining 1963 Indiana and 2001 Penn State. The only power conference teams to do so in the BCS/CFP era are 2001 Penn State, 2021 Florida State, and 2025 UCLA.
• UCLA won three straight games against No. 7 Penn State (Oct. 4), Michigan State (Oct. 11) and Maryland (Oct. 18) under interim head coach Tim Skipper. Across those three games, UCLA scored 100 points with 12 touchdowns and averaged 422.3 yards of total offense (233.3 rushing, 189.0 passing).
• UCLA, led by an interim head coach and new offensive and defensive play-callers, defeated No. 7 Penn State, 42-37, at the Rose Bowl for its first win over an AP top-10 opponent since Sept. 24, 2010.
• The Bruins lead the Big Ten Conference and rank fourth in the FBS in redzone efficiency with 27 scores on 28 trips for a 96.4 success rate (11 passing TDs, 6 rushing TDs and 10 FGs). UCLA has scored has been stopped in just one of 11 games this season, failing only once at Michigan State on a missed field goal attempt.
• Quarterback Nico Iamaleava has averaged 172.8 passing yards per game on 181-of-285 passing (63.5%), including 12 touchdowns, over the first 10 starts of his UCLA career. Iamaleava has accounted for 16 of UCLA's 23 total touchdowns this season. He also leads the team in rushing yards (490), rushing touchdowns (4) and carries (101). The Bruins' second-leading rusher trails Iamaleava by 183 yards (Jalen Berger, 307).
• N. Iamaleava accounted for all of UCLA's five touchdowns (three rushing, two passing) and recorded 296 yards of total offense (166 passing, 128 rushing) in its 42-37 upset victory over Penn State. Iamaleava's three rushing touchdowns tied a UCLA QB single-game record; the last time a Bruins quarterback ran for three touchdowns was Rick Bashore against Washington State on Oct. 14, 1978. Former All-American QBs Gary Beban and John Sciarra (twice) also accomplished the feat.
• Linebacker JonJon Vaughns eclipsed 100 tackles for the season during UCLA's loss to Washington (Nov. 22), pushing his total to 102 (43-59-102). Vaughns is the second UCLA linebacker in the last eight years to record 100-plus tackles in a season, joining Carson Schwesinger in 2024 (136 tackles). Vaughns ranks second in the Big Ten and 16th in FBS with 9.3 tackles per game this season. He has recorded the first five double-digit tackle performances of his career in his final campaign in Westwood.
• A total of six non-specialists have started every game this season for UCLA: WR Kwazi Gilmer, OL Sam Yoon, DB Key Lawrence, DT Gary Smith III, LB JonJon Vaughns and DB Cole Martin.
Venue: L.A. Memorial Coliseum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Kickoff Time: 4:45 p.m. (PT)
Television: NBC
TV Talent: Noah Eagle (play-by-play), Todd Blackledge (analyst), Kathryn Tappen (sideline)
Local Radio (UCLA Bruins Audio Network): AM 790 (LINK)
Local Radio Talent: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Matt Stevens (analyst), Wayne Cook (sideline), Nick Koop (pre/post-game host)
SiriusXM: Ch. 138 or 196
Game Notes: PDF
Live Stats: LINK
THE MATCHUP
The UCLA football team travels across town to face rival No. 19 USC in the 95th edition of the Battle for Los Angeles this Saturday, Nov. 29 at L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Kickoff between the Bruins (3-8, 3-5 Big Ten) and Trojans (8-3, 6-2 Big Ten) is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. (PT) on NBC. Fans in the greater Los Angeles region can listen live on AM 790, the new home of the UCLA Bruins Audio Network.
COACHING CHANGE
Tim Skipper will serve as UCLA's interim head coach for the remainder of the 2025 season after DeShaun Foster was relieved of his head coaching duties on Sept. 14, 2025. Skipper previously served as the special assistant to the head coach under Foster earlier this season.
Last season, Skipper became Fresno State's interim head coach in July of 2024 and guided the Bulldogs to a 6-7 record and a bowl appearance. Skipper was also the acting head coach for Fresno State at the 2023 New Mexico Bowl, which the Bulldogs won over New Mexico State, 37-10. Skipper's previous coaching experience includes stints as defensive coordinator, most recently at UNLV from 2018-19, and assistant head coach responsibilities at Colorado State, Central Michigan and Fresno State. He also coached running backs at Florida from 2015-16 and linebackers from 2017-18.
THE BATTLE FOR L.A. HISTORY LESSON
UCLA and USC have met at least once each season since 1936 (89 straight years). The first game of the historic rivalry series was played in 1929 at L.A. Memorial Coliseum. No other FBS rivalry features two schools in closer proximity than UCLA and USC, with the two elite academic institutions separated by just 11 miles.
• Victory Bell: The winner of the UCLA-USC football game is awarded the Victory Bell. The 295-pound bell originally hung atop a Southern Pacific freight locomotive. It was given to the UCLA Alumni Association in 1939, and in 1941, it was stolen by a group of USC students. A year later, the student body presidents of both schools signed an agreement that the winner of the football game would keep possession for the next year. It has become tradition by each university to paint the trophy the school's colors after reclaiming the Victory Bell.
• Home Uniforms: The two schools have a longstanding history of each wearing their home uniforms, regardless of where the rivalry game is played. The tradition began when the two schools shared the L.A. Memorial Coliseum as their home football venue from 1928-81, and therefore both wore their respective home jerseys. Well after UCLA left to occupy the Rose Bowl for its home games, an NCAA rule came to be that mandated white jerseys must be worn by the visiting team. Former USC head coach Pete Carroll deliberately went against this rule in 2008, and with UCLA's permission, both teams wore their home jerseys. Carroll was required to forfeit a timeout for wearing the wrong jersey, to which then-UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel voluntarily called a timeout of his own. In 2009, the rule was changed to allow both schools to wear their home uniforms. The rule tradition has persisted ever since.
• Other game week traditions include a friendly meeting on the gridiron between each school's newspapers, the Daily Bruin and Daily Trojan, in an event known as "The Blood Bowl", another game between each football program's equipment staffs and the shielding of the campuses' iconic statues (UCLA's Bruin Bear and John Wooden statues and USC's Tommy Trojan statue).
KEY NOTES ON UCLA
• According to Big Ten Network Research, UCLA is just the third Big Ten team all-time to lose its first four games and then win its next three, joining 1963 Indiana and 2001 Penn State. The only power conference teams to do so in the BCS/CFP era are 2001 Penn State, 2021 Florida State, and 2025 UCLA.
• UCLA won three straight games against No. 7 Penn State (Oct. 4), Michigan State (Oct. 11) and Maryland (Oct. 18) under interim head coach Tim Skipper. Across those three games, UCLA scored 100 points with 12 touchdowns and averaged 422.3 yards of total offense (233.3 rushing, 189.0 passing).
• UCLA, led by an interim head coach and new offensive and defensive play-callers, defeated No. 7 Penn State, 42-37, at the Rose Bowl for its first win over an AP top-10 opponent since Sept. 24, 2010.
• The Bruins lead the Big Ten Conference and rank fourth in the FBS in redzone efficiency with 27 scores on 28 trips for a 96.4 success rate (11 passing TDs, 6 rushing TDs and 10 FGs). UCLA has scored has been stopped in just one of 11 games this season, failing only once at Michigan State on a missed field goal attempt.
• Quarterback Nico Iamaleava has averaged 172.8 passing yards per game on 181-of-285 passing (63.5%), including 12 touchdowns, over the first 10 starts of his UCLA career. Iamaleava has accounted for 16 of UCLA's 23 total touchdowns this season. He also leads the team in rushing yards (490), rushing touchdowns (4) and carries (101). The Bruins' second-leading rusher trails Iamaleava by 183 yards (Jalen Berger, 307).
• N. Iamaleava accounted for all of UCLA's five touchdowns (three rushing, two passing) and recorded 296 yards of total offense (166 passing, 128 rushing) in its 42-37 upset victory over Penn State. Iamaleava's three rushing touchdowns tied a UCLA QB single-game record; the last time a Bruins quarterback ran for three touchdowns was Rick Bashore against Washington State on Oct. 14, 1978. Former All-American QBs Gary Beban and John Sciarra (twice) also accomplished the feat.
• Linebacker JonJon Vaughns eclipsed 100 tackles for the season during UCLA's loss to Washington (Nov. 22), pushing his total to 102 (43-59-102). Vaughns is the second UCLA linebacker in the last eight years to record 100-plus tackles in a season, joining Carson Schwesinger in 2024 (136 tackles). Vaughns ranks second in the Big Ten and 16th in FBS with 9.3 tackles per game this season. He has recorded the first five double-digit tackle performances of his career in his final campaign in Westwood.
• A total of six non-specialists have started every game this season for UCLA: WR Kwazi Gilmer, OL Sam Yoon, DB Key Lawrence, DT Gary Smith III, LB JonJon Vaughns and DB Cole Martin.
Players Mentioned
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