Cade McNown joined the UCLA football team after finishing high school. As a freshman, he already played for games for the whole season as the team quarterback and was able to rank number one among all freshmen quarterbacks with many statistics compared. When he was a junior, he started aiming for higher goals and during that time, his team won 10 games in the season, including 1998 Cotton Bowl Classic, where they won over Texas A&M. They also finished Pac-10 co-champion during that time and was able to rank number 5 in the nation. McNown, after which, was named Most Outstanding Offensive Player for that year’s Cotton Bowl Classic. He also received much recognition and was able to break many records in the UCLA, which were mostly records set by Tom Ramsey.

As Cade McNown reached his senior year in UCLA, he continued to attain great achievements in the field of football including helping his team to reach a 10-2 record. He also had a distinction of being the only UCLA quarterback who made it to 4-0 against USC, their cross-town rival. Because of this, he was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame.