According to UCLA Bruins head football coach DeShaun Foster, the three pillars of UCLA football are Discipline, Respect, and Enthusiasm. For UCLA fans, the hope is those three pillars result in wins, and if nothing else, in some exciting and competitive football for the Bruins football program. At the Big Ten Media Day on Thursday in Las Vegas, Foster spoke about the excitement and the buzz surrounding the 2025 UCLA football team.
The excitement starts with quarterback Nico Iamaleava, the former five-star quarterback and No. 1 ranked player in the 2023 California high school football recruit rankings. Iamaleava was ranked No. 2 in the nation behind Arch Manning, from the famous Manning family of quarterbacks.
Iamaleava transferred this spring to UCLA after two seasons at the University of Tennessee. Iamaleava started his sophomore season, passing for 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns in 13 games, with just five interceptions. He also ran for 358 yards and three touchdowns. Iamaleava led Tennessee to the college football playoffs, losing to eventual national champion Ohio State in the first round of the 12-team playoffs.
Iamaleava wanted to get back to his home in Southern California and wanted the opportunity to play for first-year offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri. The Tennessee Volunteers offense was a run-heavy offense. The Volunteers threw the ball on 40% of their offensive possessions in 2024.
While Foster would not commit to any particular scheme at his Big Ten Media day interview, it would be safe to predict that Iamaleava will play in a more wide-open offense under Sunseri that will take advantage of his passing talents. Foster is thrilled about the prospect of Iamaleava starting at quarterback for the Bruins in 2025.
“We’re just excited to have a playoff quarterback, somebody that was able to lead his team to the playoffs,” Foster said. “(The Vols) might not have gotten the outcome that they wanted, but he still was able to play. He showed how tough he was in that game. Just being able to come home and be comfortable in a familiar environment, I think the sky is the limit. We’re excited about this.”
The narrative on Iamaleava has been that he was a selfish athlete interested in only himself and money. In his first press interview since coming to UCLA, Iamaleava seemed anything but the character he was depicted to be by some. Iamaleava came off as an intelligent, thoughtful, and level-headed athlete.
“My time to leave Tennessee was around the time, probably when the reports came out, just false reports that made me not feel comfortable in the position I was in. But in the back of my head, I always wanted to come back home,” Iamaleava said. “Being close to my mom and my dad. You know, just have my family for support, their support at games. Like Samoan culture, we’re always together, and that was the main thing for me.”
Iamaleava was asked to elaborate on the false reports that he was referring to.
“Just false stuff about whether it was a financial thing or not,” Iamaleava explained. “You know, my deciding factor to come back home was my family, and I hope every Tennessee fan understands that. It was really one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. But I had to do what was best for me and my family, and ultimately I wanted to come back home and be closer to my family.”
Sunseri spent the 2024 season with the Indiana Hoosiers as the co-offensive coordinator & quarterback coach. Indiana was second in the nation in scoring per game at 41.3 points per game and made the college football playoffs. With the Bruins, Sunseri will be the offensive coordinator and the quarterback coach and will work closely with Iamaleava.
“The expectation for me is to be better,” Iamaleava said. “I have to get better, with Coach Tino. We had a great offense at Tennessee, I think the difference with Tennessee being wide splits, Coach Tino brings a more pro-style condensed splits offense that I am more comfortable with. I’m excited to play for Coach Tino. Coach Tino is a high energy guy, and I wanted to play for him the first day I met him.”
Foster appears to be more comfortable and confident in his second season as head football coach at UCLA, his alma mater. When asked about how he has changed going into his second season, Foster responded, “It is just mostly about being comfortable. Once you get more familiarity, I have done this before, I have been in the Big Ten before, so all of this is familiar. Spring ball, we did that before. It has completely slowed down from where it was. Every year you have to grow.”
Foster talked about wanting to get bigger on both sides of the line, offense and defense. He felt they accomplished that through the transfer portal. Foster feels good about their current two-back system at running back between Javian Thomas and Jalen Berger. The speedy Thomas rushed for 626 yards and seven touchdowns for the Cal Bears in 2024, rushing for an average of 6.3 yards per carry. Berger has rushed for 1,383 yards and ten touchdowns in his career, with 38 receptions and two touchdowns.
The Bruins open the season at home in the Rose Bowl on Saturday, August 30 against their old friends from the Pac-12 conference, the Utah Utes. The game will start at 8:00 pm and will be televised nationally on FOX. The Utes are coming off a 5-7 season in their first year in the Big 12 conference.
The Utes will start a transfer quarterback of their own in Devon Dampier, a transfer from the University of New Mexico, where the dual-threat QB rushed for over 1,000 yards as a sophomore. Dampier was selected first-team All-MWC in 2024. The new-look Bruins offense will need to be ready for what could become a high scoring battle in the Rose Bowl between the two former Pac-12 members.