Football is won in the trenches.

And the Bruins excelled on both fronts in their Week 1 triumph.

UCLA football (1-0) will face a physically imposing San Diego State squad (1-0) – which racked up 53 points and 237 rushing yards in its 33-point victory over Portland State last week – at the Rose Bowl on Saturday afternoon, marking the first home contest of the coach Bob Chesney era.

The Westwood bunch rushed for 277 yards against California in its season opener, with fifth-year tailbacks Wayne Knight and Anthony Woods – along with senior Jaivian Thomas – combining for 230 yards and five touchdowns. The latter two failed to eclipse 300 yards in their first UCLA campaigns last year after transferring from Utah and Cal, respectively.

[Related: The Bruins are back: UCLA football opens season with late-night triumph over Cal]

“It goes into their buy-in as a program, as a group, because you’re talking about three dynamic running backs that … could have 40 carries, 50 carries, 30 carries, 20, whatever it is,” said offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy. “But the fact that they’re buying into each other, that you could see them on the sideline genuinely caring about other people’s success, … when you have a group like that, it bleeds into the team.”

Senior signal-caller Nico Iamaleava was the Bruins’ leading rusher in 2025, going for 505 yards.

But to bolster the running back room, Chesney brought Knight, a 2025 Second Team All-American selection, along with him from James Madison.

Despite Knight’s game-high three touchdowns on the ground against Cal, the Smyrna, Delaware, local likely couldn’t have achieved his inaugural Bruin success without the squad’s new-look offensive line.

UCLA added two James Madison transfers to improve its offensive front in senior Riley Robell and fifth-year Carter Sweazie – both of whom earned All-Sun Belt honors last year for the Dukes – along with seven additional newcomers.

Versatility and tenacity defined the Bruins’ offensive line approach last weekend, with multiple pieces rotating to different spots on the line while embracing intensity, Kennedy said.

“Coach Smith (offensive line coordinator Chris Smith) says it all the time that they have to be playing the hardest out of anybody in America,” Kennedy said. “When you tie it in together, when you have five people playing as hard as anybody on the football field on an every-snap basis, it makes up for mistakes.”

Yet, opening up running space is just as important as sealing opposing openings on the defensive line.

The Bruins had one of the worst defensive fronts in the Big Ten last year, allowing 190.4 ground yards per game – good for second-most in the Big Ten – and notched the fewest sacks in the country.

The unit flashed improvement to start the 2026 campaign, holding Golden Bear tailback Adam Mohammed to 4.3 yards per carry after he boasted nearly a 5.0 clip last year at Washington, while limiting the Cal rushing arsenal to less than 120 yards.

SDSU had similar success in its first game of the 2026 campaign.

The Aztecs’ offensive line forfeited just one sack and allowed head coach Sean Lewis to rely on a by-committee rushing approach, with four different running backs rushing for 30-plus yards against Portland State.

Lewis, now in his third year at SDSU, has preached the importance of trench physicality to spearhead a power-run game, which UCLA defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler said stemmed from his playing career at Wisconsin in the 2000s.

“He was a Wisconsin grad in the glory days of the downhill run game,” Hitschler said. “You watch the film, and it’s evident on tape that the players are playing like how he played, and his toughness is showing up.”

Although improved fronts helped UCLA dominate in the fourth quarter against Cal – when the Westwood squad outscored the Golden Bears 21-0 and rushed for three touchdowns – the Bruins will face a Lewis-led squad that may match their physicality.

And the Bruins are not getting complacent.

“There were nice articles written (about UCLA’s win over Cal),” Chesney said. “But if you’re going to listen to it now, then you have to listen to it when it doesn’t go exactly your way.”