It Is Not Clear How This Fake Field Goal In South Alabama-UCLA Was Supposed To Work

College football coaches absolutely love to call fakes on special teams, even if they do not always work out the way they are supposed to. A lot of the time, you can see what a team is going for, and the inability to execute usually comes down to having special teams players try to do things that more experienced players pull off with regularity. Heck, a lot of the time, the things that special teams units are asked to do are a lot more complex than anything that an offense is asked to do.

And now, we head to the Rose Bowl, where the UCLA Bruins played host to the South Alabama Jaguars on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins were able to squeak out a 32-31 win, in part because the Jaguars went for it on fourth-and-2 late in the game. They didn’t do that with their offense, though, as they decided to run a fake field goal that just did not seem to have much of a chance from the jump.

That’s the team’s backup quarterback going from holder to quarterback, the kicker lining up in the slot, some pre-snap motion by a tight end, everything getting taken away by the Bruin defense, and a sack. Anyway, UCLA would get the ball immediately after this, go 61 yards in 10 plays, and convert a game-winning field goal as the clock hit zero, so South Alabama might have wanted this one back.