The UCLA Bruins play in one of the most prestigious venues in college football, the Rose Bowl, but their on-field play hasn’t been elite in a long time, with only one bowl win since 2015. However, there’s renewed hope heading into the 2025 season in the form of Tennessee transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
Iamaleava aided Tennessee to a 10-3 record and a College Football Playoff appearance. The 6-foot-6 dual-threat quarterback threw for 2,616 yards last season with 19 touchdowns, five interceptions, and rushed for 358 yards with three running touchdowns. If Iamaleava can put up similar numbers again at UCLA, it’ll mean the Bruins are likely destined to have a much improved year.
UCLA is ecstatic that Iamaleava chose to come play for the Bruins, who play just 30 miles from his hometown of Long Beach, California. After finishing 5-7 last season, the expectation is that Iamaleava can help the Bruins string together wins and pull off upsets. UCLA head coach Deshaun Foster explained at Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas why he’s so enthusiastic to have a QB1 with a winning track record. Foster says “the sky is the limit” for Iamaleava and the Bruins this season.
“The arm strength is just something that you see just from watching him play at all, but he’s just a talent. It’s not anything that I saw him do last season,” Foster said. “It’s more of what I had seen him do all the way up. Him being a local quarterback, I had seen him play a few times, and he’s played with a lot of players that are on our team, so there’s a lot of familiarity there. We’re just excited to have a playoff quarterback, somebody that was able to lead his team to the playoffs.”
Iamaleava brings with him a winning mindset to UCLA that they desperately need. While UCLA hasn’t won a national championship since 1954, Iamaleava at least brings a fresh perspective and lofty goals to a program that’s been mediocre at best for far too long.
“The main thing for me is to bring a championship culture back to Westwood,” Iamaleav said on Thursday. “I hate losing. I’m a big-time winner. I want to win games. That’s our main thing — our main goals for this year are to bring championships back to Westwood.”
Make no mistake, no one is expecting UCLA to bring any championships back, not even a Big Ten Championship. For example, UCLA has the fourth-worst odds of winning the Big Ten on FanDuel Sportsbook at +18000.
Rumors swirled this offseason about the reason Iamaleava left Tennessee, with rampant speculation that he was heavily motivated by money. However, Iamaleava threw cold water on those theories and said transferring to UCLA had everything to do with his family.
“My decision to leave was extremely hard,” Iamaleava said. “One of the hardest decisions that I’ve ever had to make. Family was the biggest thing to me. A lot of things about financial stuff, it was never that. It was me getting back home, closer to my family, and playing at the highest level with my family’s support. In our Samoan culture, we’re always together. That was a very important thing for me.”
Iamaleava has quickly become a key leader for the Bruins this offseason, based on the relationships he has already been able to forge with his UCLA teammates, as well as his body of work at Tennessee. Iamaleava shared that he cracked his helmet twice in Tennessee’s College Football Playoff loss to Ohio State. His grit was already well known on day No. 1 as a Bruin.
“Toughness, it just comes with not wanting to quit,” Iamaleava said. “I always want to win. I hate losing. You know, losing is not in me.”
Iamaleava is aware that the road ahead for UCLA won’t be easy, but he’s also ready to attack the challenge and prove doubters wrong.
“A great challenge, man. Everybody in the locker room has a chip on their shoulder. Our coaches have great expectations for us to meet and we’re gonna go out there and prove ourselves right,” Iamaleava said. “We’re gonna go out there and be a successful team and have a great year.”
