Mountain West memories: Jake Haener’s best throw came in Rose Bowl in superb win over UCLA
Jake Haener, the former Fresno State quarterback, still can rattle off each play call, one after the other. He still remembers each disguise and each coverage that he saw, each pressure that came his way. He knows where he wanted to go with the football with every throw, and why.
That includes what Haener called the best pass of his Fresno State career. It came on the Bulldogs’ final drive in a 40-37 victory over UCLA at the Rose Bowl in 2021, in two-minute offense with far less than that remaining in the game and the Bulldogs trailing by four points.
Haener, hobbling around the field after absorbing four sacks and five serious hits, found Jalen Cropper crossing the right hash; a perfect throw for a 27-yard gain. Haener and Ryan Grubb, the Bulldogs’ former offensive coordinator, watched the play on tape the following week with good humor. On the TV copy, Cropper is not yet on the screen when Haener is throwing the football. And, yet, the throw was right there when Cropper crossed the right hash, with UCLA nickel Qwuantrezz Knight maybe a half-step behind.
“I saw him on the left side of the defender and there was no way that kid was going to get to the other side of Cropp, so I tried to anticipate it,” Haener said. “I think that was the best throw I had at Fresno State.”
For the record, Haener attempted 1,072 passes at Fresno State, fourth on the school’s all-time list.
After that, Haener hit Josh Kelly on the right side line for a gain of 26 yards to the UCLA 12. Two plays later, he hit Cropper with a back shoulder throw for the winning touchdown. They went 75 yards, in six plays and 40 seconds.
Fresno State lived the highs and through the lows in 14 seasons in the Mountain West Conference, and of all its drives in that time, that one at UCLA stands out. The Bruins were ranked No. 13, coming off a victory over No. 16 LSU. It was the Bulldogs’ first victory over a ranked non-conference opponent since 2004, and their fourth victory in a row over UCLA. The Bulldogs also lost a 9-point lead in the fourth quarter, then a 3-point lead, and had to score twice in the final 2:55 to get out of the Rose Bowl with a victory.
After UCLA took a lead with 7:27 to go, Grubb and Haener spoke briefly on the sideline phone. Before taking the field for the next series, a prescient Grubb, sitting in the coaches’ booth in the press box, told coach Kalen DeBoer over the headsets, “Tell, Jake, he’s going to be remembered for this next 7:27.”
Grubb did it again, after Haener hit Erik Brooks with a 19-yard touchdown pass on a 3rd-and-goal play to cap a 10-play, 75-yard drive and put Fresno State back in the lead with 2:55 to play in the game.
He told Haener, “Get ready to do it again.”
“I said, dude, you’re crazy, bro. No way,” Haener said. “Sure enough, he was right.”
The throws in that fourth quarter were scintillating. The touchdown to Brooks barely got by UCLA corner Jay Shaw, who swiped at the ball with both hands, trying to knock it down. The 26-yard pass to Kelly on the winning drive was just over the outstretched arm of cornerback Obi Eboh. The back shoulder throw to Cropper for the touchdown was perfect, though Haener admitted the Bulldogs got some help from the Bruins on that play.
UCLA crowded the line of scrimmage on what was a 2nd-and-11 play from the 13, after a pass to the flat to running back Ronnie Rivers lost one yard. “They had all these guys standing at the line of scrimmage, acting like they’re going to blitz,” Haener said.
The Bruins had seven players up there, with four defensive backs playing well off the Fresno State receivers, around the goal line. Five of the Bruins rushed and two dropped into coverage, or attempted to. Rivers picked up the extra pass rusher, Knight, taking him out of the play. The flat defender feigned blitz and as a result ended up very late getting outside. That gave Haener a clear shot to Cropper, who caught the ball in front of cornerback Mo Olsing III and beat him into the corner of the end zone.
“The whole sequence of it was crazy — Grubb telling me how it was going to go, telling me that I’m going to be remembered for the last 7:27,” Haener said. “Then, one of the most wild sequences in Fresno State history. It was crazy how it went.”
The blitz by the Bruins, probably not the greatest play call. It was not new. Rivers after the game said they had worked against it all week in practice. Also, Haener in that game hit 39 of 53 pass attempts (73.6%) for 455 yards and two touchdowns. When UCLA brought an extra pass rusher, he was 23 of 31 (74.2%) for 302 yards with one score and one interception. And, in that fourth quarter, he was 14 of 18 (77.8%) for 226 yards and two scores.
“You’ve got to tip your hat to Jake,” UCLA coach Chip Kelly said, after the game. “That is as good of a performance as I’ve seen a quarterback make in my career. I’m not sure if he ever threw a bad ball. He had great command of everything we were doing. He did a good job, looking at some of the disguises, the protections, knowing to get the ball off.”
“You practice two-minute, you practice all those things, and you get calls that you’re really comfortable with and your guys have a lot of experience rep-ing, and we just ran it,” Haener said. “It’s not like we called anything that was going to be mind-blowing or earth-shattering. It gets a little more complicated when you get down into the red area, with what you’re going to call based on percentages and what they play inside the 7 to 10 or the 13 to 20, what their favorite calls are.
“I just couldn’t miss at the end there.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 7:41 AM.