PASADENA, Calif. — Nico Iamaleava made a bigger splash in the NCAA transfer portal than he did in his debut for UCLA.
The highly touted quarterback who left Tennessee at the end of spring practices after taking the Volunteers to the College Football Playoff last season struggled in the Bruins’ 43-10 loss to Utah at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.
Iamaleava was sacked four times for 28 yards lost. He was 11-of-22 passing for 136 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
“Nico’s a competitor. He’s not going to quit; he keeps playing hard,” Bruins second-year coach DeShaun Foster said of the 6-foot-6, 215-pound redshirt sophomore from Long Beach. “Kept motivating the guys around him. We’ve got to do a better job of protecting him and keeping him upright.”
Iamaleava, who was the Bruins’ leading rusher with 13 carries for 47 yards, was outshone by Utah quarterback Devon Dampier, a New Mexico transfer who was 21-of-25 for 206 yards and two touchdown. He also was the Utes’ leading rusher with 16 carries for 87 yards.
UCLA’s first two drives of the game stalled on fourth-and-1, and Iamaleava being sacked for a 13-yard loss helped Utah take a 20-0 lead. The Bruins were forced to punt in their final drive before halftime.
In the second quarter, Iamaleava connected with former Utah player Anthony Woods on a 19-yard pass that was the Bruins’ only touchdown of the game. He got sacked for a 6-yard loss that ended the Bruins’ second drive of the third quarter. In the fourth, Iamaleava was intercepted to end another drive that led to a Utah first down.
“It was all self-inflicted,” Iamaleava said. “We didn’t execute well.”
Iamaleava announced he was leaving Tennessee in April but didn’t join the Bruins until August, giving him limited time to adjust to new offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri.
“Coach Tino put me in a lot of great positions to go out there and make plays, and I didn’t execute at a high level,” Iamaleava said. “I have to take myself to the drawing board and use this film as a learning experience.”
He and the Bruins don’t have time to waste while competing in a Big Ten stocked with teams that made the College Football Playoff last season and could return this year. No. 2 Penn State visits on Oct. 4, the Bruins travel to 20th-ranked Indiana on Oct. 25 and visit No. 3 Ohio State on Nov. 15.
“We just take this as a learning experience,” Iamaleava said. “Utah is a great team. We’re going to face many more opponents out there on the schedule, and we’ve got to be ready.
“Everything we want is still ahead of us.”