UCLA Bruins football gets the big 20-17 win in Texas behind Jerry Neuheisel

Who was your player of the game for the Bruins? What were the key stats and plays that defined the game?

Sam Barbee (Follow on Twitter): It's gotta be Jerry Neuheisel. Stepping in for Brett Hundley and throwing two TD passes and winning? Big deal. Huge deal.

Chris Turner (Follow on Twitter): Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Young Neuheisel was limited in his play choices Saturday (mostly screen/swing passes), but when the Bruins needed it most, he came through with a great throw on a pump and go route to Jordan Payton to give UCLA the lead with just under three minutes left.

Zach Pugh (Follow on Twitter): It's hard to go with anyone else except Jerry Neuheisel. He was thrown into an unexpected situation, and performed well enough to help the Bruins get the W. Neuheisel's 33-yard pass to Jordan Peyton sealed the victory late in the 4th quarter after a 58-yard punt return. Many thought the Longhorns were going to win at that point, but Neuheisel had other plans.

Zach Willman (Follow on Twitter): How about Jerry Neuheisel? His passes to Nate Iese and Jordan Payton alone puts him worthy, but then he was able to lead the Bruins to the game-winning drive. His stats were somewhat unimpressive but as a backup winning this big non-conference game they were adequate.

Josh Estes (Follow on Twitter): Jerry Neuheisel. Have to give him props, when I saw Hundley go down, my first thought was: "Here's another loss for the Pac-12...." But he stepped up and looked a lot better than I would have expected. Should be interesting to see how Kelly and Hundley recover -- we may see a battle of the back ups in Tempe on 9/25.

Trace Travers (Follow on Twitter): Got to be Neuheisel. One of the last vestiges of the Rick Neuheisel era is his son, and he led a couple second half touchdown drives that led the Bruins to a close victory in the absence of Brett Hundley. It would have been a terrible loss for the Pac-12 otherwise.

What was the most impressive part of today's performance for UCLA and why?

Sam Barbee: That last scoring drive was huge for UCLA. That's a big win over a decent Texas team without their best QB, maybe even best player.

Chris Turner: I know it was mostly related to Hundley going down, but I was impressed with the rushing attack today. Paul Perkins and Jordan James combined for 195 yards and averaged 4.5 YPC. Depending on how long Hundley could be out, we may see these two a lot more over the next two weeks.

Zach Pugh: Winning without Brett Hundley. Once Hundley went down, my immediate reaction was the Bruins would lose without their Heisman candidate. But this team rallied around sophomore QB Jerry Neuhiesel, didn't get flustered and even though they were down late managed to score in the final three minutes of the game to keep their playoff chances very much alive.

Zach Willman: 6 receivers with at least 2 catches and 14 yards; spreading the ball between many wide receivers is a good sign of a healthy passing offense with great weapons who can keep a defense guessing. The defense also held the Longhorns under 200 yards in passing and under 150 in rushing yards, with 4 straight punts starting the second half to keep their team in the game.

Josh Estes: Poise. That team is entirely based on Brett Hundley. When he goes down, it wouldn't have been surprising to see UCLA deflated, but they kept battling. Good sign of a resilient team. This is the kind of adversity that could help out later in the season.