Freshman QB Josh Rosen leads UCLA to 34-16 win against Virginia

The Josh Rosen Era at UCLA started about as well as anyone could have hoped.

Rosen, the star freshman quarterback who won the starting job during fall camp, completed 28-of-35 passes for 351 yards and three touchdowns. The passes, completions and yards were records for a UCLA true freshman and the touchdown passes tied Cade McNown’s record from 1995.

Rosen threw to 11 different receivers and averaged 9.2 yards per pass. Eight of those receivers had double-digit receiving numbers.

Rosen started the game slowly as he was figuring out the Virginia defense and dealing with a key drop by one of his receivers, but came out confidently in the second half and led the Bruins to scores on two of its first three drives.

Rosen gained more confidence as the game went on and in turn that confidence seemed to energize the defense, which also struggled a bit in the first half, but it ultimately limited Virginia to just 98 rushing yards.

Jerry Neuheisel, whom Rosen beat out for the starting role, replaced Rosen with about nine minutes remaining the fourth quarter.

While Rosen was certainly the star of the game, fellow freshman Soso Jamabo led all rushers with nine carries for 79 yards, including efforts in the fourth quarter where he bounced off and dragged Virginia defenders for runs of 26 and 39 yards that ultimately set up the Bruins’ final field goal of the day.

The Pac-12 needed this performance by UCLA after Stanford and Washington State were upset earlier in the day. While the first weekend isn’t over, UCLA has definitely asserted itself as a formidable Top 25 team.

For more UCLA news, visit BruinSportsReport.com.

For more Virginia news, visit CavsCorner.com.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

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