When UCLA brought in Nico Iamaleava earlier this spring, the Bruins planned to trade up from Appalachian State journeyman transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar. The revolving door ended with Nico trading Tennessee Orange for Bruin Blue, with Aguilar exiting for Tennessee without ever taking a snap at UCLA.
UCLA has gone all-in on Nico after his messy exit from Tennessee, and a high-stakes standoff has ensued between UT and Nico and his father over NIL payment demands. Because of the baggage that came with such a signing, UCLA took a calculated risk of betting on the still largely unrealized potential talent of the No. 1 overall player in the 247Sports transfer rankings. The Bruins opened the checkbook, knowing that if they added Iamaleava, they’d lose Aguilar, which they did. Although they probably didn’t count on him heading to Knoxville.
It is too early to call Nico a bust, although some will, but as just over 35,000 fans slowly trickled out of the Rose Bowl late Saturday night when the margins kept getting worse in UCLA’s eventual 43-10 loss to Utah, the questions of whether Nico was with the money and controversy are just beginning.
Iamaleava finished 11 of 22 for 136 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked four times, while Utah quarterback Devon Dampier, who was making his first start since transferring from New Mexico, was kept upright the entire game.
Iamaleava missed open receivers, threw an interception directly to Utah linebacker Trey Reynolds, and couldn’t dig his team out of an early hole. It certainly was not all his fault. The Utes, a trendy pick to win the Big 12, dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball from start to finish and outclassed UCLA for 60 minutes.
Exacerbating the expected second-guessing among UCLA fans and national sports pundits was Aguilar’s impressive opening performance for the Vols. After winning the QB 1 job over two extremely talented but young QBs in Knoxville, Tennessee fans were justifiably concerned about how the new quarterback would handle a tough game on a neutral site. Those who stayed up late Saturday to watch their former QB fizzle are even more pleased that Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel refused to be bullied by the team, Nico, into overpaying for a promising, highly-hyped quarterback who had not performed to expectations last year.
Aguilar looked sharp in his debut as Tennessee’s starter. He finished 16 of 28 for 247 yards and three touchdowns and was able to shake off a lackluster start to help his team record a 45-26 win over Syracuse just over 11 hours before UCLA began its season. He looked like a perfect fit for exactly what Tennessee coach Josh Heupel needs from his quarterback to compete for berths to the College Football Playoff. The speed of Tennessee’s play calling and snaps was back to Heupel’s preferred pace, something Nico was never able to handle. Tennessee fans were particularly enthused when Aguilar made a long run, opting to turn in the field rather than dash to the sidelines, something Nico frequently did when coming up short of first downs, or inexplicably running out the clock.
One game won’t define Iamaleava’s time at UCLA. Whether he stays one or two years, he can definitely change the narrative and turn perception around quickly with upcoming winnable games on the Bruin schedule against UNLV, New Mexico, and Northwestern. The next real test will come on Oct. 4, when UCLA hosts No. 2 Penn State.
Nor will one game prove the wisdom of making Aguilar QB1 for the Vols, who dismissed noise from critics before his first game as “rat poison” that should be ignored. The Vols get a very winnable home debut Saturday against ETSU before hosting Georgia on September 13. It remains to be seen how long the senior Aguilar will retain the reins of the Vol offense, but for now, fans in Tennessee are breathing a sigh of relief and are very happy with the quarterback flip-flop with UCLA. Rival Alabama’s upset loss to unranked Florida State was just an added bonus for Vol fans.
Steve Gill is the publisher and editor of TriStar Daily and is wearing Tennessee orange and a big smile after Saturday’s performance.
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