Aidan Mizell caught two passes on Saturday. Both of them went 75 yards. Both of them were touchdowns, and both of them came in the fourth quarter, with the game tied and UCLA’s perfect season on the road in Minneapolis hanging on whatever happened next.
The final was UCLA 34, Minnesota 20, per ESPN’s game summary, and the shape of it is right there in Mizell’s line: two receptions, 150 yards, two touchdowns. That is not a receiver having a big day across four quarters. That is a receiver deciding a game in one quarter, twice, from the same distance, after Minnesota had done the hardest part of the afternoon — dragging the No. 8 team in the country into a 20–20 tie in the fourth quarter at Huntington Bank Stadium.
The same play, twice
Games tied that late usually turn on a mistake: a turnover, a penalty, a kick that drifts. This one turned on speed. Mizell got behind the Minnesota defense for a 75-yard touchdown to break the tie, and then, with the Gophers still within one score and the stadium still in it, he did it again — another 75-yard touchdown catch, the second of the quarter, for the 34–20 margin that held to the final whistle.
Put his afternoon next to the game itself and the comparison is the story. The two teams combined for 54 points; the decisive 14 both belonged to one player, on his only two catches, in the one quarter Minnesota could not afford to lose. UCLA’s other receivers, its run game, its defense — all of it kept the Bruins level into the fourth. Mizell is the reason level became a win.
First 9–0 since 1998
The win moves UCLA to 9–0 — the program’s first 9–0 start since 1998. Perfect seasons in November are not protected by reputation; they are protected by somebody making a play when a road game goes sideways in the fourth quarter. The Associated Press’s account of the afternoon reads the same way the scoreboard does: a ranked team in real trouble late, saved by the fastest player on the field going the distance two times in a row.
For Minnesota, the loss is the cruel kind. The Gophers were level with a top-10 team in the fourth quarter at home, close enough to spend the final minutes believing. Two plays later the game was gone, and the margin will say 14 points to anyone who reads it cold — a number that does not mention how late this was still a tie.
There is a version of this UCLA season that wobbles here — a cold road afternoon, a tie game deep into the fourth, the kind of loss that rewrites a playoff résumé in one quarter. Instead the Bruins leave Minneapolis still perfect, because when the game finally asked who on the field could end it, the answer was wearing No. 1, and he only needed the ball twice.
Full linescore and play-by-play: Game Center — UCLA at Minnesota. More: College Football hub · Stats Hub
Sources · 3 sources
- ESPN — game summary and box score, UCLA at Minnesota (event 401858512): final score 34–20, Mizell’s line of 2 receptions for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns
- Associated Press — game story, “UCLA turns up the speed late to stay unbeaten with 34–20 win at Minnesota” (Nov 7, 2026): the 20–20 fourth-quarter tie and Mizell’s two 75-yard fourth-quarter touchdown catches
- UCLA Athletics — uclabruins.com game recap, “UCLA remains unbeaten after 34–20 win at Minnesota” (Nov 7, 2026): UCLA 9–0 for the first time since 1998
