“Tennessee is going to have some regrets,” CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz said about Nico Iamaleava at UCLA’s fall camp. Josh Heupel thought he was getting a steal deal in the QB when he recruited him for Tennessee. He ended up gutting the program in his dramatic move to UCLA. And DeShaun Foster is getting exactly what Heupel had hoped for in Iamaleava’s second season. He is not just Foster’s, but the entire program’s gamble for this season, and is the lone guy who can tip the needle for unprecedented success at UCLA.

Nico Iamaleava is home and happy. Josh Heupel is far from that situation. The QB came with his flaws in 2024, as defenses begin to catch on to the things that impeded him. But this season Iamaleava means business. “This is a year where, you know, I’m trying to get out after. So, you know, I’m going to give my all to UCLA, and, you know, if I have the year I want, you know, I want to get out,” the QB told the press after practice. We know what UCLA is getting in Iamalaeva – the Bruins couldn’t have gotten a better QB at the portal at the time. But is the QB getting what he wants out of the UCLA system?

CBS Sports’ experts discussed Iamaleava’s brilliance at UCLA so far in an August 12 episode. But Richard Johnson had doubts about Iamaleava’s success at Westwood. “Is this a thing where Nico Iamaleava is playing so well, or is this a thing where you just haven’t had a quarterback that could play up to Nico Iamaleava’s potential in the building since, I don’t know, Josh Rosen?” he said. Despite being the best upgrade UCLA has seen in years, Nico Iamaleava does come with his own set of problems.

“We did see his limitations last year at Tennessee. We did see how defenses started to play Tennessee coming down the stretch, pretty much the same way. Flood the zone, let that Tennessee offense that’s got all those bells and whistles, you can march down the field on us, but we’re going to tighten it inside the red area, and you’re not going to be able to punch it in the end zone. Tennessee struggled with that,” Johnson added. Iamaleava struggled a little bit with inaccuracy, but the offense as a whole was weak too. Tennessee was 6 in most sacks per game, and gave up 30 total last season. In the SEC, Tennessee averaged just 25 points per game in the season.

“How much does Nico Iamaleava progress as a player in a system that may even be less quarterback-friendly than the Tennessee system? … So I’m interested in how Iamaleava fits into UCLA … in the context of the last seven, eight, nine years of UCLA football,” Johnson said. At UCLA, Nico Iamaleava’s first change will be in playing a pro-style offense. And, he will be one of the few seasoned players who will be leading the charge in a largely fresh Bruins team. At this point, Tino Sunseri’s offense and Nico Iamaleava look like a great combo superficially. But how this experiment fares is still a thing left for the future.

In the Chip Kelly era, UCLA has plateaued at single-digit finishes, dropping out of national recognition in the process. But with Iamaleava, the Bruins have become a topic that grabs attention instantly, all because of Iamaleava. DeShaun Foster should hope to keep the QB for the rest of his remaining career, because he brings odds with him to Westwood that haven’t graced UCLA in a decade.

Nico Iamaleava is the only key to UCLA making its mark in college football.

What’s good in Iamaleava’s standards is great for UCLA’s. That’s how influential the QB can be for Foster. Before Iamaleava, Foster was heading into the season with Joey Aguilar, who is his successor at Tennessee. Though Aguilar is a seasoned QB, there’s a reason why Iamaleava was better. 247Sports’ Chris Hummer said, “I have talked to multiple people in college football at UCLA and outside of UCLA that say Niko is worth two or three wins at least compared to what they had last year. Like, he is that significant of an upgrade at QB for them.”

UCLA finished 5-6 last year. This year, there should be no reason for DeShaun Foster to finish below 8, because that’s what Iamaleava is bringing to the table. It all comes down to just one player, but Foster has to make sure that the rest of the supporting cast helps make it so. He will find help in Sunseri, who’s shaped QBs like Cole Johnson, Kurtis Rourke, and Todd Centeio to players who have helped their programs finish with 10 wins and above. UCLA has some tough games lined up as well, with Penn State, Ohio State, USC, and maybe even Washington. That could mean an easy 2-3 win.

No college football program has skyrocketed into popularity the way UCLA has, all with the addition of just one player. But it isn’t just any player – Nico Iamaleava’s show at Tennessee warranted that image. But will Nico Iamaleava be able to excel in a system like that of UCLA’s? Or will Josh Heupel have the last laugh after all?