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Indiana's Dominique Ratcliff (91) pressures UCLA's Nico Iamaleava (9) during the Indiana versus UCLA football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

UCLA Injury Update Following Much-Needed Bye Week

Originally posted on UCLA Bruins on SI | By Connor Moreno | Last updated Nov 4, 2025 8:00 AM ET

It's that time of the year where teams are starting to feel the length of the college football season, and are being plagued with injury. But the UCLA Bruins, as unlucky of a season as they've had, have been afforded a great bill of health all season.

Minus missing key players like running back Anthony Woods the last few weeks, the Bruins haven't been without any other key contributors throughout the rollercoaster they've endured this season.

Before its bye this week, UCLA played five-straight games and were starting to feel it, according to interim head coach Tim Skipper. Ahead of their Rose Bowl matchup with Nebraska, Skipper detailed that the Bruins are pretty much whole again.

"Really good bye week," Skipper said during Monday's media availability. "It hit at the right time. As you're seeing around the country. Whether it's college or the pros, a lot of people are getting hurt right now. It's just how football goes. The season gets long and that body starts wearing down.

"Knock on wood and lucky for us, we're relatively healthy. We practiced yesterday, everybody was there. Everybody was ready to roll. So I feel good about where we are as far as health goes."

Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Bruins are going to need all the contributions they can get against Nebraska, which suffered one of the worst losses to injury of the weekend.

Nebraska Loses Raiola For Season

Star Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola will be out for this weekend's Rose Bowl clash and for the remainder of the season after suffering a broken right fibula in the Huskers' 21-17 loss to USC on Saturday.

Raiola threw 10-of-15 for 91 yards and a touchdown against the Trojans before going down on a sack early in the third quarter. True freshman backupp quarterback TJ Lateef took the reins after Raiola went down and the Cornhuskers conceeded a lead to lose the game.

Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Raiola was having a quality season, tossing 18 touchdowns and 2,000 yards on 72.4% completion percentage. The sophomore signal-caller was sure to be UCLA's first name on the scouting report, but now the Bruins are hosting a true freshman thrower while their defense has been rising consistently.

What Raiola Injury Means for UCLA

Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Even without Raiola, Saturday's clash against Nebraska isn't going to be easy. ESPN Analytics gives the Bruins just a 31.8% chance to win the game.

It isn't the longest odds in a game for UCLA this season, looking back on its upset win against No. 7 Penn State over a month ago. Nebraska has a tremendous running back, Emmett Johnson, who has rushed for 1,002 yards and 10 touchdowns on 175 carries through nine games this season.

Lateef, a Compton, California, native, was one of the top signal-callers in the nation at Orange Lutheran High School, where he threw for more than 6,500 yards and scored 66 total touchdowns in three seasons at the school.

Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

UCLA's defense has been consistently improving since interim head coach Tim Skipper brought on senior defensive analyst Kevin Coyle, allowing 28 opponent points per game over five games. Two of those games included giving up 37 in a win against the Nittany Lions and 56 while being completely outmatched in all facets against the Hoosiers last week.

This article first appeared on UCLA Bruins on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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