UCLA quarterback Dante Moore and running back Anthony Adkins play video games like 2K and Fortnite together, go out to eat and watch Halloween movies — Hocus Pocus is Moore’s favorite.

But when Moore comes into the locker room and offers candy, it’s a firm “no” from Adkins.

“He’s not a selfish person,” Moore said. “I remember sometimes I’d come offer him candy at the locker room. He’s literally my roommate next to my locker. He would just say, ‘Nah, I’m watching my weight.’ One thing Ant does is take care of his body and really improves on the football field.”

Adkins shed some weight when he took on a new role with the No. 24 Bruins (3-0), which was different from the physical blocking style he had when he played at Army. His work paid off in Saturday’s 59-7 win over North Carolina Central when ran for 96 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, which led all four running backs who played.

Carson Steele added 83 yards on five carries, TJ Harden had 66 yards on five carries and Colson Yankoff had 61 yards on six carries. Each reached the end zone once. Quarterback Collin Schlee also picked up 60 yards rushing and two touchdowns on three attempts.

The last time UCLA rushed for six touchdowns in a game was in 2015 against Arizona.

Adkins has separated himself as a bruising downhill running back, gaining every yard with force. That’s partially due to his time at Army, where he played fullback in a wishbone formation.

“He’s a big physical back, but he’s very nifty on his feet,” coach Chip Kelly said after the game. “I think he’s got really good vision. He’s tough to tackle, runs with good body lean. He’s one of those guys that each week, he starts to get more comfortable with what we’re doing.”

The Bruins’ ground game helped them dominate North Carolina Central. UCLA reached 404 rushing yards (out of 614 total yards of offense) compared to the Eagles’ 103 yards on a similar number of attempts. The Bruins averaged 10.4 yards per carry.

“We pride ourselves on running hard, playing physical, playing aggressive every week, week in and week out,” Adkins said. “As far as today, you know, that’s some of the things I am good at. I brought that to the table to help the team win. Just playing hard, playing physical, playing aggressive, and the rest of it took care of itself.”

Kelly has mentioned on multiple occasions that depth is a strength of this year’s team. The depth at running back will be tested as the Bruins enter Pac-12 play next week at No. 12 Utah, the reigning Pac-12 champion.

The Utes enter the matchup with wins over Florida, Baylor and Weber State and have held each of them to 13 points or less. Utah has only given up two rushing touchdowns so far and yields an average of 65 rushing yards per game.

“You can’t have too many running backs,” Kelly said. “I think we have two in Carson and TJ right now but I think Anthony is really starting to push and get into the mix and I think that’s a good thing as we go into league play.”

Black Excellence game meaningful for Bruins

UCLA hosted an HBCU team for the second straight season when it played North Carolina Central on Saturday during its Black Excellence celebration.

“I have a lot of friends that go to HBCUs — Morehouse, Howard, GW — and just learning from them and learning how they really look at Black excellence, it means a lot,” Adkins said. “I hold some of those values, too, that they have. It’s just awesome, especially playing against a team like NC Central, who’s also an HBCU.”

Dante Moore came into the postgame press conference wearing the solid black shirt designed specially for the Black Excellence game. His sister goes to Delaware State, an HBCU, and went to Martin Luther King Jr. High School, which serves a 100% minority student body according to U.S. News and World Report.

“Understanding the history of everything is really important,” Moore said. “Coach Kelly and the UCLA program, how we acknowledge HBCU games, is something that we all appreciate for sure. I love how we make shirts out of it, let people represent on the jumbotron and really just talk about how Black history is.”

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