Nico Iamaleava was the face of the NIL era's ugliest divorce -- a contract fight that ended with him leaving Tennessee for UCLA. Then the Bruins went 3-9. He could have left again. Instead he's running it back to prove the talent was always real.
6′5″ · 215 lb · Long Beach, CA · Warren HS / Tennessee
CFB Index
A single number blending on-field production (an EPA-based value lane) with box-score output for this player's position.
0-100, scaled within each position's own cohort — not directly comparable across positions.
The numbers
passing yards · 2026 · through week 3
3 games into 2026 so far -- Backed by 16 car · 128 yds · 3 TD -- top 1% rushing TDs game. -- Best game: 276 pass yds, 3 TD, 55 rush yds, vs Purdue
The play that turned itSwung UCLA from 50% to 83% to win.Maryland at UCLA · 20-17
His career numbers, season by seasonThe story
Nico Iamaleava was the face of the NIL era's ugliest divorce -- a contract fight that ended with him leaving Tennessee for UCLA. Then the Bruins went 3-9. He could have left again. Instead he's running it back to prove the talent was always real.
Aura™ · Him Watch
+50aura tax
24th pctl our passing-value metric (wEPA) QBs · 160 qualified, n=153
— more hype than the tape.Buzz vs Tape
He's mentioned more than 75% of qualified QBs this season, but his production sits in just the 24th percentile — a gap of 51 points between volume and tape.
Also worth knowing:
“UCLA's Bob Chesney says quarterback Nico Iamaleava wanted to stay in Westwood.”
The saga is the part everyone knows: a spring-2025 standoff over his deal at Tennessee, a skipped practice, a coach "moving on," the portal, and a landing at UCLA inside of a week. The football got buried under it. In 2025 he threw for 1,928 yards with 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions, completed 64 percent, and led the Bruins in rushing with 505 yards -- including a five-touchdown night in a 42-37 upset of seventh-ranked Penn State -- on a team that still finished 3-9. He forwent the 2026 draft to come back under a new staff, betting on himself a second time. The forward stakes are whether the most-scrutinized quarterback in college football can finally turn five-star traits into steady, in-structure production. Get there, and the redemption arc lands and the draft stock follows. Don't, and the saga stays the story.
His career
He arrived as a blue-chip recruit and played like one.
Iamaleava is a dynamic athlete with a big arm and a production gap, and the data tells the same story the scouts do. As a runner he's elite -- our play-by-play puts his EPA per carry in the 98th percentile and his explosive-run rate in the 97th, top-end quarterback speed on designed runs and scrambles. As a passer he's been ordinary: an 18th-percentile EPA per dropback and an 11th-percentile average depth of target -- a lot of short, safe throws. Draft evaluators (The Draft Network) credit "prototypical" arm talent and high-velocity throws into tight windows, but flag that he "missed too many shots downfield" and can "lock onto his primary read" rather than progress -- best improvising, a work in progress within structure. The frame is the whole career: the tools are real, the in-rhythm passing is the unfinished part.
Written by our staff.
The role got bigger.
Career arc
Badges
Coaching lineage · 2023–2026
4 coachesPlayed under 4 different head coaches: Chip Kelly, Deshaun Foster, Tim Skipper, and Bob Chesney. Multi-era developmental context.
Game by game
Point color shows the opponent's defensive strength that week (red = weaker defense, blue = stronger) — dashed line is this player's own season average.
Game log · Week-by-week
2026 season · 3 games
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 45-24@ California | 14/22 | 184 | 0 | 1 | 8.4 | 52.4 | |
| Wk 2 | W 28-10vs San Diego State | 14/22 | 151 | 0 | 1 | 6.9 | 31.0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 52-38vs Purdue | 19/31 | 276 | 3 | 0 | 8.9 | 83.0 | Season-high 276 yds |
| Total | 47/75 | 611 | 3 | 2 | 8.1 | 55.5 |
SIGNATURE GAME · Week 1 · 2026
W 45–24
at California
184 yds · 0 TD · 1 INT · QBR 52.4 · 29 rush yds (9 car) · 1 TD
Dominant 21-point win on the road against California.
With C. Gerrand — 43 yards per punt · 5 punts · 3 inside the 20 · W. Knight — 71 rush yds (8 car) · 3 TD
Signature plays · top plays by |EPA|
The plays that mattered most
Since week 2: +276 passing yards, +3 passing TD.
Season context · Team result + system
Where this profile ranks vs the QB cohort
Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles
Elite: explosive rate (91st percentile). Strength: fumbles lost (90th percentile). Concern: success rate (17th percentile).
Real play-by-play efficiency
Season trend
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season. Most bars are box-score rates; EPA / success-rate bars are computed from real play-by-play (offense only — no defensive EPA model exists yet).
Pass Profile · True throw depth (charted plays)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Adjusted ANY/A
6.8475 of 126 QBsSack rate
6.2%89 of 126 QBsSacked on 6.2% of dropbacks (89 of 126) and Adjusted ANY/A trails the field (75 of 126).
Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.
Behind LOS · Negative air yds
Short · 0–9 air yds
Middle · 10–19 air yds
Deep · 20+ air yds
Overall 61.8% completion on 76 attempts · 58% completion on 12 deep attempts (20+ air yds).
Zeitgeist Passer Rating
2026 · our own passing-efficiency number, shown next to the 1979 formula it does not replace.
Thin sample: 80 dropbacks56Zeitgeist Passer Ratingnot ranked until 125 dropbacks
--NCAA passer ratingno box-score line yet
Positive-play rate weight 24%
43.8%34th pct of FBS QBsshare of dropbacks that gained expected pointsYards per attempt weight 56%
8.2589th pct of FBS QBssacks excludedSack rate weight 21% (penalty)
6.2%38th pct of FBS QBsthe input passer rating cannot seeOpponent-adjusted; garbage time excluded (0 of 80 dropbacks dropped). 50 = FBS average; the number is pulled toward 50 when the sample is thin. Scaled against the 2025 FBS population until enough 2026 QBs qualify. How ZPR is built.
Splits · Per-game
2026 season · 3 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home2g | 214 | 1.5 | 7.9 | 0.5 |
| Road1g | 184 | 0.0 | 8.4 | 1.0 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-73g | 204 | 1.0 | 8.1 | 0.7 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Bob Chesney
Pass share
39.0%
76 pass / 119 run
Plays / game
65.0
3 games
Scheme: Run-heavy.
Player standing · 2026
On the two-deep and pushing for snaps.
Recognition
2026 outlook
Outside shot for All-Big Ten
Based on 2025: #16 of 19 Big Ten QBs
22% estimated, 95% confidence interval 19–25%. Base rate measured from players who finished at a comparable rank in their conference and came back the next season. It is an estimate from a small sample, not a forecast of this player.
Play style
Iamaleava is a dynamic athlete with a big arm and a production gap, and the data tells the same story the scouts do. As a runner he's elite -- our play-by-play puts his EPA per carry in the 98th percentile and his explosive-run rate in the 97th, top-end quarterback speed on designed runs and scrambles. As a passer he's been ordinary: an 18th-percentile EPA per dropback and an 11th-percentile average depth of target -- a lot of short, safe throws. Draft evaluators (The Draft Network) credit "prototypical" arm talent and high-velocity throws into tight windows, but flag that he "missed too many shots downfield" and can "lock onto his primary read" rather than progress -- best improvising, a work in progress within structure. The frame is the whole career: the tools are real, the in-rhythm passing is the unfinished part.
Our classifier reads him the same way: extends plays with his feet until something opens up.
Returning starter at quarterback for a 3-9 UCLA team that went +14 in the portal.
Player DNA
Makes plays with feet when the pocket collapses. Efficiency still on the rise.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Kurtis Rourke’s 2021 season.
Matches Kurtis on
Differs from Kurtis on
Through 4 college seasons, his career arc tracks closest to Davis Mills’s path through Stanford.
Matches Davis on
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Doug Brumfield's junior season at UNLV (2022).
Differs from Doug on
Player DNA
Heisman Trajectory · 2026
Peaked at #59 this season.
Career Highlights • 2024 Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Finalist • 2024 Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Semifinalist • 2024 Citrus Bowl MVP • Associated Press National Player of the Week (Oct. 6, 2025) • Maxwell Award Player of the Week (Oct. 7, 2025) • Walter Camp National…