Wildest turnaround of 2025: UCLA or Northwestern?

UCLA was 0-4, now they're 3-4. Northwestern is suddenly 5-2. Both beat Penn State to gain national attention. Which story is more amazing?

UCLA lost their coach after going 0-3 in dismal fashion. Soon after, they upset Penn State with an interim coach. Two wins later they're looking like a Big Ten contender!

Northwestern opened with a terrible loss to Tulane and started 1-2. They barely beat lowly UCLA, but two games later they upset Penn State on the road and are 5-2.

Let's go to the charts:

From the charts, it looks like UCLA's turnaroun was more dramatic, but Northwestern's rise is continuing —and might be more sustainable.

UCLA's season

       Opponent            Final Rating
  #  8 Utah                10-43  41.0 
@ # 96 UNLV                23-30  42.1 
  # 80 New Mexico          10-35  23.0 
@ # 58 Northwestern        14-17  56.6 
  # 27 Penn State          42-37  69.3 
@ # 75 Michigan St         38-13  79.9 
  # 60 Maryland            20-17  57.9 

UCLA was wiped out by Utah, then lost a close game to 6-1 UNLV, but they hit absolute rock bottom with the 35-10 home loss to New Mexico (now 4-3). Coach DeShaun Foster was fired and replaced with interim coach Tim Skipper.

Things got much better right away. The Bruins immediately played their best game of the year but no one noticed since it was a loss to Northwestern, something considered to be pretty bad. As we now know, Northwestern is pretty damn good and getting better, but that wasn't apparent at the time. 

Then they beat Penn State. Again, the story was that the Nittany Lions blew it after losing to Oregon. Which was true, but UCLA was also becoming a good team. They proved it next week by beating Michigan State 38-13 the next week. The latest game vs. Maryland wasn't as awesome but it was much better than any of their first three games and they won their fourth in a row. They have just one Big Ten loss!

Next up they face Indiana, who also beat Michigan State by the score of 38-13. How for real is UCLA? We'll soon know.

Northwestern's season

       Opponent            Final Rating
@ # 57 Tulane               3-23  39.8 
  #267 Western Illinois    42- 7  45.8 
  #  2 Oregon              14-34  62.0 
  # 71 UCLA                17-14  53.5 
  #182 Louisiana-Monroe    42- 7  59.3 
@ # 27 Penn State          22-21  69.9 
  # 68 Purdue              19- 0  70.8 

Northwestern lost to Tulane 23-3. They beat Western Illinois 42-7 but that's nothing to brag about (they're 1-7). The Oregon loss—34-14—wasn't a bad performance, and beating UCLA 17-14 is looking more impressive each week. At the time, being 2-2 and struggling to beat UCLA looked pretty bad.

The Wildcats beat ULM 42-7, the same score they achieved against a much worse team a few weeks before. And then they beat Penn State on the road. Still, Penn State was washed, right?

The 19-0 win over Purdue was their best game. Purdue isn't very good so unlike UCLA, few people notice that Northwestern is getting better every week. They're playing at a top 25 level right now and have no Big Ten losses. Will they continue to improve? Saturday at Nebraska may answer that question. But I think the verdict would be that Nebraska sucks. So we might have to wait three weeks for the USC game.

Who is playing better right now?

It's very even, as we see from Northwestern's 3-point home win. But the Wildcats have been getting better since week one, and UCLA's bump might be less reliable. The Bruins hit higher heights with their Michigan State win, but Northwestern is steady and improving.

If UCLA manages to upset Indiana on the road the question is answered. Otherwise we'll have to look at how close they keep it, and what Northwestern does against Nebraska. But until proven otherwise, these are both top 25-level teams at the moment, and both have a shot at the Big Ten title if they keep playing like they have the last four games.