After a shroud of secrecy in camp, Bruins' season opener is a dud

From the first snap of training camp, DeShaun Foster tightly controlled any narratives about his team.

- BEN BOLCH

Photographs by ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times NICO IAMALEAVA, brought down here by Jackson Bennee (23), had an uneven debut in UCLA's 43-10 loss to Utah late Saturday.

Reporters never knew how much or little - of UCLA's practice sessions they would get to watch, one day being limited to eight minutes of stretching. Mostly they saw individual drills, field goals and in recent weeks - one snap of the full offense going against the defense.

Photography and video were banned, even at a Rose Bowl practice open to spectators who faced no such restrictions. Foster preferred to let the team's social media posts and internally produced video series suffice as the story of his team.

As of late Saturday night, the story could no longer be kept secret.

The Bruins don't appear to be any good.

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times ISAIAH CHISOM (32) and the UCLA defense spent much of Saturday night chasing Utah's Devon Dampier.

In a clunker of a season opener, they couldn't tackle on defense or consistently move the ball on offense behind new quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

While it's important to throw in the caveat that it's just one game, UCLA's 43-10 loss to Utah at the Rose Bowl represented a giant step backward after the Bruins had closed their first season under Foster with four wins in their final six games.

"We went out there and, you know, we got punched in the mouth, man," Iamaleava said.