Running back Zach Charbonnet was tasked with working in a backfield as the primary running option for the first time in his UCLA career.
He usually shared the workload in a two-back system along with Brittain Brown, who was questionable all week with an undisclosed injury.
Charbonnet had a season-high 28 carries 167 yards and a touchdown. His total put him over the 1,000-yard milestone (1,031) for the season.
He has been an impact player for the Bruins after transferring in from Michigan during the offseason. The junior has six 100-yard rushing games this season, tied for the most since Joshua Kelley in 2018.
Charbonnet’s effort helped the Bruins finish with 260 total rushing yards. UCLA has rushed for at least 200 yards in each of its seven wins this season.
Coach Chip Kelly mentioned early in the week that they’d have to watch how Brown progressed but also prepared receiver turned running back Kazmeir Allen throughout the week to take on that backup role.
Kelly was told Saturday morning that Brown wasn’t going to play and Allen never had a carry out of the backfield. Allen still played a significant role, scoring three touchdowns.
It’s unclear what Brown’s status will be for the final two games of his career as a Bruin.
Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson contributed in the run game, scoring two rushing touchdowns in addition to passing for four more.
Running back Ethan Fernea, a sixth-year player for the Bruins, also contributed to the rushing attack with a 42-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter, adding to the largest point total the Bruins have scored in a single game against the Trojans.
“(Ethan has) given everything to this program,” Kelly said. “He was really playing well for us and then hurt his wrist.”
Fernea missed two weeks this season after suffering the injury and returned to practice with a club-like cast around his hand and wrist following surgery.
“I thought he was done for the season, but he wasn’t,” Kelly said. “He elected to have the surgery and come back and play this year, and to finish it off that way, for that kid, was just awesome.”
The former walk-on slowly worked his way back, participating on special teams while wearing the cast and eventually worked his way back into the offense.
“Nobody expected that,” Thompson-Robinson said about Fernea’s touchdown. “Fern is always working hard and working his tail off even when nobody’s watching.”
This is Fernea’s first winning season as a member of the Bruins and his first season as a running back, making the switch during the offseason after spending most of his college career as a receiver.
He had his first experience as a running back at the end of the 2020 season when the team’s depth at the position became thin.
“I’m just hoping to win some games,” Fernea told reporters in May about coming back to contribute. “I haven’t got an opportunity throughout my five years to win too many games so I think that’s the goal.”
