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Will UCLA football win a game? Week 5 matchup at Northwestern could be Bruins' best chance
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- Will UCLA football win a game? Week 5 matchup at Northwestern could be Bruins' best chance
A 2025 college football season that began with at least some measure of promise for UCLA has devolved into a disaster before the calendar has even turned to October.
After winning four of their final six games last season and making the much-hyped offseason addition of Tennessee transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava , the Bruins had some reason for optimism heading into their second season under coach DeShaun Foster.
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Whatever hope there was quickly vanished. UCLA opened its season with a 33-point drubbing at home at the hands of Utah, which was followed by a Week 2 loss at UNLV . Six days after the setback against the Rebels, the Bruins reached a new low, getting blown out 35-10 at home against a New Mexico team they paid $1.2 million for the game . Two days later, the school fired Foster , a former UCLA All-American running back, just 15 games into his tenure.
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As much as a 0-3 record stings, there's something even more painful the Bruins have to reckon with — they're already through what was expected to be the easiest portion of their schedule.
Though it's only one quarter of the way through the regular season, UCLA is faced with the increasingly likely possibility that it could finish the year winless, given its pronounced struggles through its first three games and what remains on its schedule.
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Is that something that could realistically happen?
Heading into its game Saturday at Northwestern , here's a look at UCLA's remaining 2025 schedule and its best chances at a win:
Will UCLA win a game?
A question that once seemed unthinkable is now something much more plausible.
UCLA has already lost the only two games on its schedule against opponents from outside the Power Four conferences, falling to UNLV and New Mexico. The loss to the Lobos is particularly galling, as they're under a first-year coach and feature a largely remade roster. The Bruins entered that game as a two-touchdown favorite, but were outscored 21-0 in the fourth quarter on their way to a lopsided loss.
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Things will only be getting more challenging. Saturday's game against Northwestern is the first of nine consecutive Big Ten games UCLA has to end the season. Though some of the marks have been inflated by relatively weak non-conference competition, the combined record of the Bruins' nine remaining opponents is 28-4.
Given that, UCLA's best chance at a win may very well be this weekend on the shores of Lake Michigan. At 1-2, Northwestern has the worst record of any team remaining on the Bruins' schedule. Michigan State and Nebraska , both of which are 3-1, are the next-worst teams UCLA will face.
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Has UCLA ever gone winless?
If the Bruins finish this season winless, it won't be the first time in program history they've done so. UCLA failed to win a game in the 1920, 1921 and 1924 seasons. Since then, though, it has won at least one game every season. In fact, only five times since 1925 have the Bruins not won at least three games.
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UCLA schedule 2025
Here's a look at UCLA's 2025 results and remaining schedule:
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Saturday, Aug. 30: Utah 43, UCLA 10
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Saturday, Sept. 6: UNLV 30, UCLA 23
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Friday, Sept. 12: New Mexico 35, UCLA 10
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Saturday, Sept. 20: BYE
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Saturday, Sept. 27: at Northwestern
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Saturday, Oct. 4: vs. No. 2 Penn State
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Saturday, Oct. 11: at Michigan State
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Saturday, Oct. 18: vs. Maryland
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Saturday, Oct. 25: at No. 12 Indiana
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Saturday, Nov. 1: BYE
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Saturday, Nov. 8: vs. Nebraska
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Saturday, Nov. 15: at No. 1 Ohio State
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Saturday, Nov. 22: vs. Washington
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Saturday, Nov. 29: at No. 22 USC
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College football winless teams
Going winless, even for what seem like truly hopeless teams, is an incredibly difficult feat. A victory, improbable as it might seem, usually has a way of coming to be.
Since 2000, there have been only eight instances in which a team that was in a power conference at the time went winless.
There are some caveats to that number. Three of those occurred during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, with Kansas and Vanderbilt going 0-9 while Arizona went 0-5. Three other winless seasons came courtesy of Duke in the 2000s, before the Blue Devils hired coach David Cutcliffe and became the semi-regular bowl participant they are today.
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Here's a look at winless major-conference teams since 2000:
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Duke, 2000: 0-11
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Duke, 2001: 0-11
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Duke, 2006: 0-12
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Washington, 2008: 0-12
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Kansas, 2015: 0-12
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Kansas, 2020: 0-9
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Vanderbilt, 2020: 0-9
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Arizona, 2020: 0-5
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will UCLA football, Nico Iamaleava win a game this season?
