Nico Iamaleava injury update: Tim Skipper reveals where UCLA QB stands after missing game against Ohio State

UCLA QB Nico Iamaleava missed the Bruins’ last game in Columbus as he was reportedly still in concussion protocol. The team will now have to see how he progresses through this week in that protocol to see if he can return to the field on Saturday.

Tim Skipper addressed Iamaleava’s availability during his press conference on Monday. He wrapped him into an answer about several players, saying they were all day-to-day and that they wouldn’t know more until the team saw how they responded going into Tuesday.

“Yeah, they’re all day-to-day. They’re doing a lot today in the training room, and we’ll see by the end of the day if they can go tomorrow,” said Skipper. “But, they are truly day-to-day, so we have a chance for all three possibly to go tomorrow. But, we’ll have to wait and see until they get through all the testing and everything today.”

“It’s day-to-day. That’s my honest answer,” Skipper said of their quarterback plans for practice for either Iamaleava or QB Luke Duncan. “And, I’m just going to – we meet in the evening times on Monday, so we won’t meet until later. And, that way – since it’s our off day, all the players do all their treatment and do all things they need to do to get ready to go. So, once I get that report and kind of have a better idea of what we’re doing, we’ll know what direction we need to go as far as with the quarterback situation. But, I don’t want to speculate anything right now. I’m going to kind of just let the trainers and doctors tell us what we need to do.”

Iamaleava was ruled out going into their game this past weekend against Ohio State. He was reportedly dealing with concussion symptoms that came up following their loss the week prior to Nebraska.

With that, Duncan made his second appearance of the season, and the first real outing of his collegiate career, in The ‘Shoe against the top-ranked team in the nation in the Buckeyes. The redshirt sophomore performed well enough too in that opportunity, being 16-23 (69.6%) for 154 yards and a touchdown while not turning the ball over or being sacked in the 48-10 loss for the Bruins.

“He’d be a week better, you know what I mean? And, we’ll see how that all plays out. I’m going to wait to see what we have going on as far as with the injuries and things like that, and then we’ll just move along with it,” said Skipper of the potential for another start for Duncan with the possibility of a second straight absence for Iamaleava. “I think, with Luke? The first half was tough for him. He was getting used to it and everything. And then, in the second half, I think he calmed down and he really did a really good job of protecting the ball, getting the ball to playmakers and had some very successful plays. So, he’ll get better and better.”

“If he has to go, it’s fine with me,” said Skipper. “We’ll roll with it.”

UCLA should know more this evening, following their team’s meetings tonight, about the health of Iamaleava. Either way, though, Skipper sounds alright starting either quarterback he could have on the road against Washington on Saturday night.