At a perfect 8-0, No. 7 UCLA is slowly starting to earn some more believers

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At a perfect 8-0, No. 7 UCLA is slowly starting to earn some more believers

2026-11-01 09:38 Last Updated At：09:40

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The UCLA defense finished what it started Saturday by opening the afternoon with an interception and ending it with one, too.

No. 7 UCLA (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) had three interceptions on the first three drives of the game, added an early touchdown on a pick six and delivered the team's first home shutout in 19 years with a 27-0 victory over Nevada.

With four more interceptions, UCLA now has 16 on the season, one year after they had four. They entered Saturday’s game leading the nation with 10 fumble recoveries.

Not since 2005 has UCLA won its first eight games of a season and yet in the bowels of the Rose Bowl afterward, nobody was ready to say the Bruins have it all figured out.

“After every win you feel like there is so much work left to be done,” coach Bob Chesney said. “I don’t think you ever walk out of a game, regardless of what it is and be like, ‘Man, we’ve arrived. We’ve made it.’ Probably not one guy on this team feels that way. Not one coach feels that way.”

Chesney could have added the fan base as another group intent on seeing more. Another spotty crowd was on hand to watch the team’s short break from its Big Ten schedule.

Perhaps one more victory will earn more believers. Next week, UCLA travels to Minneapolis to face Minnesota, which stands at a modest 5-3 but delivered home victories over Michigan and then-No. 15 Iowa in October.

On Saturday, the Golden Gophers nearly pulled off a victory at No. 4 Indiana, before falling 23-16 in overtime.

While inside linebacker Sammy Omosigho has led the charge for the Bruins’ defense, he was able to draw plenty of attention from Nevada’s defense. That allowed defensive end Sahir West to deliver nine tackles with 1.5 sacks, linebacker Trent Hendrick to record eight tackles and defensive lineman Aiden Gobaira to finish with seven tackles and 1.5 sacks.

“I mean, that should be our standard,” Gobaira said. “We’re always going to play physical, fast and make as many plays as we can in the defense, within our scheme. We’re not looking to search for a certain play but making plays that come to us.”

The defensive line rattled Nevada quarterback Luke Duncan for three interceptions in three drives before he was replaced. Derrick Barksdale turned the third interception of the day into a 26-yard touchdown before the midway point of the first quarter.

“It’s a blessing to have a lot of cover guys back in the secondary,” Barksdale said. “We all work hard. We all teach each other well. If we see something in each other’s technique, we’re quick to help each other on it.”

UCLA finally put the shutout away when Ty Lee intercepted Reve Slone, the third of three Wolf Pack quarterbacks, with 53 seconds remaining.

And yet with a strength of schedule that has also come into question, UCLA knows there is more work left to be done.

“These next four games are going to be very physical and what we put out there at moments isn’t going to work,” Chesney said. “So we understand that and we’ll be right back at the drawing board.”

Indian opposition parties stage new protest against the elections chief

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s opposition parties on Sunday renewed calls for the resignation of the country’s election chief, staging fresh protests in the latest display of public dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

The protest, called by opposition bloc INDIA, drew tens of thousands of demonstrators, some carrying musical instruments and waving various flags, as they chanted slogans against the policies of the central government. Several opposition parties of the alliance, formed in 2023 to unseat Modi, mobilized their cadres from different states for the protest, which comes weeks after a police crackdown on protesters in New Delhi.

Led by Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party, and backed by the youth “Cockroach” movement, the protesters called for the safeguarding of India’s democracy while demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a contentious voter roll revision.

The protesters gathered at Ramlila Maidan, a sprawling public square in New Delhi, after police last month withdrew Jantar Mantar from the list of officially designated venues for demonstrations. The historic observatory had long served as the capital’s main protest site.

Authorities deployed thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers and mounted extensive surveillance, with more than 200 CCTV cameras, drones and body-worn cameras at the venue and along the protest route, officials said.

The ongoing review of voter lists has removed more than 130 million names since last year. Critics say the exercise is politically motivated, threatens to disenfranchise millions more, and has disproportionately affected minorities, particularly Muslims.

The Election Commission and Modi’s administration deny the allegations and say the revision is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday said the accusations over the voter roll revision raise “serious questions about the fairness of future Indian elections.”

“The authorities should immediately scrap the voter roll revision process that has denied India’s most marginalized people their right to vote and other government services,” said Elaine Pearson, the group’s Asia director, in a statement.

The call for Kumar’s resignation has for weeks been a rallying cry for opposition parties and supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party seeking to challenge Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP. Opposition parties, mainly the Congress, say the ruling BJP has undertaken systemic manipulation of the electoral process, accusing the party of “vote chori”, or vote theft.

Modi has not publicly commented on the protests. Some of his party leaders have dismissed the demonstrators as “anarchists” and suggested, without offering evidence, that they are backed by foreign powers.

In July, protests led by the youth “cockroach” movement forced the resignation of Modi’s education minister, a rare setback for Modi, who has been in power for more than 12 years. The movement began as an online satirical campaign this summer after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to parasites.

Suresh Sharma, a protester from northern Haryana state, said the country’s system needed reform as democracy was being throttled.

The process of voter roll revision needs to be scrapped, Sharma said, adding: “We demand that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign and be arrested.”