UCLA was only able to bask in the glow of their 17-15 victory over Oregon for so long before the check came due, and that happened early Monday morning, when rumors became reports that starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava would miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury suffered during the game. CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz was the first to break the news.
The news is a big loss for the UCLA offense. Iamaleava has seemingly been playing hurt since the opening game against UC Berkeley (when a dirty play by a Berkeley defender seemed to mess with his knee), but he has also thrown for 982 yards on 116 attempts with four touchdowns and four interceptions while also rushing for 144 yards on 42 carries with one touchdown. His athletic ability opened things up in the run game, as opposing defenses could not risk keying in on UCLA’s three-headed hydra at running back without risking Nico sprinting downfield. The passing attack has been more of a work in progress, with Nico struggling to put together a consistent game throwing the ball, but he was still able to hit some NFL-level throws from time to time, and the hope was that he would be able to explode in the back half of the season, when the Bruins could feast on some weaker teams.
My assumption heading into the season was that there was a strong possibility that Nico would return for his fifth year next year, barring some kind of explosion in performance, as he would avoid being in the same potential draft class as Dante Moore, Arch Manning, Trinidad Chambliss, Darian Mensah, and CJ Carr. Today’s injury news only furthers that belief, especially now that Nico has seen proof of concept that he can perform and win games at UCLA, which will only help his draft stock. The extra year will now allow him to show NFL teams that he is healthy and his knee is back to normal.
The silver lining to this, if you’re a UCLA fan, is that the loss of Nico Iamaleava hurts UCLA’s potential offensive output, but not necessarily the offensive output we’ve seen from the team so far. As stated, Nico has struggled passing the ball this year, with only one game grading as a B or better from him in our Eye Tests, and while the running ability from Nico will be missed, a lot of the success on that front can also be pinned on the play of the offensive line and running backs. UCLA got through one of the best defenses it will face this season when it won in Eugene this past weekend, and while Wisconsin will have a stout defense to test the Bruins, I’m also of the opinion that the rushing attack will be able to carry the team through this next stretch of games on its own.
The big question moving forward is who will replace Nico as the starting quarterback. Nico’s younger brother Madden Iamaleava has been the nominal backup for most of the season, seeing spot play in the first four games, but UCLA went to Cal Poly transfer Ty Dieffenbach to start the second half against Oregon. Dieffenbach definitely has more experience, having started at Cal Poly last year while also starting his college journey at Pitt, and he brings a running element that Madden does not possess, being more of a traditional pocket passer. I would assume, given the situation, that Dieffenbach will get the nod going forward due to his running ability, but I would also not be surprised if UCLA rotates the two quarterbacks as well.
We are still awaiting word on Roderick Pleasant and Tao Johnson, both of whom left the Oregon game with their own injuries.
Go Bruins.
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First, just awful for Nico. He hasn’t looked right since the Cal game save for one game against Purdue. He has definitely thrown some bad picks and stared down receivers but something looked off the moment he started taking snaps. I was almost certain he was hurt when throwing that 2nd pick, and him coming out in street clothes confirmed it.
I feel horrible for him after all he’s been through. But hopefully this gives him a chance to get healthy/stronger and get better at processing reads and defenses, which he still struggles with.
Re: Ty/Madden — I think Ty got put in because it seems crazy to put in a redshirt freshman in an environment like Autzen. Ty threw a nice ball to Rowe but I’m more interested to see what our offense looks like since neither QB is as dynamic of a runner as Nico.
Whoever emerges just needs to survive Wisconsin and get a couple of “pre-season” type games against Michigan State and Nevada so they can get settled in.
If Chesney and co can coax a 10 win season with all the key injuries they sustained so far (we still don’t know about Pleasant and Johnson), it will be an absolute masterclass in coaching.
With a personal experience, I would not wish a knee injury to my most hated opponent, and for this to happen to Nico I can only hope that it's not too serious and he'll have a good recovery. Say what you will about his talents, he fought for the Bruins!