UCLA’s Kazmeir Allen makes biggest plays against USC

LOS ANGELES — Kazmeir Allen proved helium was playmaker successful UCLA’s 62-33 rout of USC astatine the Coliseum.

The redshirt inferior produced 278 full yards and 3 touchdowns, including a brace of receptions disconnected passes thrown his mode by backmost Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a 100-yard footwear return.

Allen enactment the Bruins connected the scoreboard with a 45-yard reception to reason an eight-play, 94-yard drive, giving UCLA a 7-3 pb aft the PAT with 4:32 near successful the archetypal quarter.

Thompson-Robinson would spell backmost to Allen for a 58-yard touchdown pass, the 2nd of 3 consecutive UCLA touchdowns scored successful the 2nd quarter.

The archetypal 2 of Allen’s 3 receptions against the Trojans were the longest of his career.

Allen’s versatility has been utilized sparingly this play and often constricted to footwear returns due to the fact that of the extent up of him astatine some moving backmost and receiver. He had 591 full yards and 2 touchdowns aft the archetypal 10 games of the season.

“Kaz is peculiar and truly getting comfy astatine being a receiver,” UCLA manager Chip Kelly said. “With Brittain (Brown) down, helium really played a batch much astatine moving backmost this week due to the fact that we didn’t cognize what our extent down (Zach Charbonnet) would be. We needed (Allen) today.”

Kelly said they recovered retired Saturday greeting that Brown wouldn’t play, but continued with Allen arsenic a receiver.

“I’m chiefly a receiver but I cognize each the moving backmost plays,” Allen said. “I was acceptable for anything.”

The Trojans would chopped the Bruins’ pb down to 9 with Gary Bryant Jr.’s 44-yard touchdown drawback with 2:09 near successful the 3rd quarter.

But Allen smothered immoderate momentum the Trojans gained connected the pursuing play, scoring his archetypal vocation footwear instrumentality for a touchdown.

Allen ran the shot retired of the extremity portion and enactment his velocity connected show done an unfastened lane down the mediate of the coverage, going astir untouched for the 100-yard instrumentality to springiness the Bruins a 42-26 pb aft the PAT with 1:56 near successful the 3rd period.

“We’ve been adjacent a mates times this year,” Kelly said. “He broke 1 earlier successful the twelvemonth for 73 yards (against Arizona) but we felt similar we had a bully plan and a batch of guys that instrumentality a batch of pridefulness successful getting to their blocks due to the fact that they cognize Kaz tin instrumentality 1 home.”

Allen was blessed with the footwear instrumentality against the Trojans, viewing it arsenic a accidental to rewrite a missed scoring accidental connected a instrumentality for 66 yards against Fresno State, his hometown team.

“I had to marque idiosyncratic miss and helium dove portion not looking,” Allen said astir the Fresno State game. “I couldn’t fto it hap again.”

Allen was excited to instrumentality connected an expanded relation this season, aft wellness issues had plagued him passim his assemblage career.

“It’s astir time,” Allen said successful September. “I had (COVID-19) past twelvemonth and had to redshirt the twelvemonth before.”

He was 1 of 2 players who tested affirmative for the microorganism past play but the individuality of the players weren’t released oregon known until Allen confirmed the news.

“It deed maine hard,” Allen said. “I astir apt mislaid 10 pounds and had headaches and assemblage aches.”

Allen said that it took 2 weeks for him to flooded the microorganism and statesman to get his value backmost up.