Bob Chesney: Nico Iamaleava is 'as electric as any QB right now in college football'

Nico Iamaleava had a tumultuous debut campaign at UCLA last season. After the Bruins lost their first three games of the season, the school fired head coach DeShaun Foster, along with numerous other members of the staff.

Nonetheless, Iamaleava and his teammates didn’t allow themselves to become discouraged. Instead, they fought back, winning three of their next four games.

UCLA finished the season with a 3-9 record and hired Bob Chesney to be its new head coach. Chesney was James Madison‘s headman for two years and led the Dukes to the College Football Playoff last season. In a conversation with Jim Rome on Friday, Chesney raved about Iamaleava.

“He’s great. I think our rapport grows every single day,” Chesney said. “He’s just a leader. And I look back a lot of times on what these guys just went through over the years. So, Nico did not show up here until pretty much halfway through the summer, maybe more than that. He got started, and within the first three weeks of the season, the offensive coordinator was gone, the head coach was gone, his quarterback coach was gone. All those people were gone.

“To be able to keep it together speaks volumes of his leadership and just his mental toughness. … I just like the way he continues to grow as a leader. I think he wondered if he was a leader or not. We did a leadership vote not too long ago, and he came out at the top by far.”

Iamaleava received significant backlash from Tennessee fans last offseason when he left the program reportedly due to an NIL dispute. He then landed at UCLA, taking him back to his home state of California, but struggled out of the gate.

Iamaleava eventually found his stride and finished the season with 1,928 passing yards and 13 touchdowns, compared to seven interceptions. Additionally, he notched 505 yards and four scores in the ground game.

With two years of starting experience under his belt, Nico Iamaleava is poised for a standout year. Evidently, his teammates are counting on him.

“Everybody looks to him as a leader, and I think he needs to understand that,” Chesney said. “He loves this game, though. He is passionate about this game. He doesn’t stop. His mouth doesn’t stop running when he makes a play on the defense. They don’t stop yelling back at him, and it’s just a fun environment to be on when people truly love playing this game.

“This kid can do it all. He could push the ball vertically downfield. When it’s time to pull the ball down and run, he is as electric as any quarterback right now in college football. And, I’m looking for a really bright future for this year for him.”