Game Summary
The weather was sunny and 74 degrees. As the "visiting team", UCLA wore their white road jerseys with gold pants, and the Illinois Fighting Illini wore their navy blue home jerseys with orange pants. The game was the second Rose Bowl meeting between the two schools. They met in the 1947 Rose Bowl following the Big 10-PCC agreement in 1947. This was the eighth overall meeting between the two schools with Illinois having a 5-2 edge since the first meeting in 1947. The game was played on a Monday due to the Rose Bowl tradition of not holding the Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl on a Sunday.
Quarterback Neuheisel and several other Bruins awoke with food poisoning that morning. Some UCLA players were unable to play, including starting defensive tackle David Randle, punter Kevin Buenafe and reserve defensive lineman Tory Pankopf. Bruin Coach Terry Donahue realized that Rick Neuheisel was so sick that his presence on the team bus might psych out the rest of the team. Donahue put Neuheisel into a private car for the trip to the stadium.
The Bruins kicked off. Don Rogers, the 1983 Rose Bowl player of the game, intercepted a pass from Jack Trudeau on the third play of the game with only 43 seconds off the clock. At the end of the drive, John Lee attempted the field goal. It was blocked by Luke Sewall of the Illini, and was picked up by the Illini safety Craig Swoope. Swoope ran with the ball and fumbled, which was recovered by the Bruins. The first score by the Bruins came on the following drive. The first of four touchdown passes by Rick Neuheisel was to Paul Bergmann.
The Illini barely used their rushing game passing 79% of the time, and Trudeau threw 14 straight passes in the first half. They had the ball on the UCLA 28-yard line starting the second period. Trudeau threw two incomplete passes and a four-yard completion. Chris White kicked a 41-yard field goal to make the score 7-3 with 13:59 left in the half. Kevin Nelson completed the next score for the Bruins with a 28 yard run. Don Rogers got a second interception from Trudeau, which tied a Rose Bowl record. On the following drive Neuheisel finished off with a 16 yard touchdown pass to Karl Dorrell to take a 21-3 lead. On the Bruins next drive, Mike Young scored another touchdown from a Neuheisel pass.
In the second half, Neuheisel threw his record-setting fourth touchdown pass to Karl Dorrell to put the Bruins up 35-3. The Illini were still struggling to get the passing and ground game going and failed to convert on third down. Another Bruin field goal by John Lee put the Bruins up 38-3. After the field goal, the scoreboard read: CalTech 38, Illinois 3. Which was then changed to CalTech 38 M.I.T 3. The Rose Bowl was able to cut the power to the scoreboard before it was able to read CalTech 2 Rose Bowl 0. The Rose Bowl officials could not get the scoreboard straightened out, so time and score were kept on the field spoken over the public address system. At this point, Illini coach Mike White was battling the clock. The Bruins allowed the Illini short passes and Thomas Rooks of the Illini would score. UCLA finished off with one more running touchdown to make the final score 45-9.
Read more about this topic: 1984 Rose Bowl
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