As UCLA players and coaches milled about on the field a half hour before the team’s spring showcase at the Rose Bowl, the present met the future.
Nico Iamaleava and his younger brother, Madden, emerged from a tunnel in one corner of the end zone.
The transfers who could immediately become the team’s top two quarterbacks once they enroll this summer exchanged hugs with their new coaches Saturday afternoon before watching the final practice of spring.
“It just feels good because you know you’re around somebody that you can tell he has presence,” UCLA coach DeShaun Foster said of visiting with Nico Iamaleava, the newcomer from Tennessee. “He kind of commands attention being [6 feet 6], he’s a huge guy and he’s not somebody that’s just seeking that attention but he just kind of has a poise to him that … it’s just comforting.”
Nico Iamaleava brings some much needed cachet to the Bruins after leading the Volunteers to the College Football Playoff in his redshirt freshman season. Madden is returning after executing a double flip — the Long Beach Poly High graduate switched his allegiance from UCLA to Arkansas on signing day, only to change it back recently through the transfer portal. Foster cannot comment on the younger Iamaleava until he’s officially signed with the team, which is considered a formality.
Madden could be his brother’s top backup next season, though he might be pushed by Luke Duncan considering the way Duncan continued to show mastery of the offense as part of a group of quarterbacks that thinned from seven at the start of spring to four by the end.
“Each day, you could tell he was getting better, getting more comfortable,” Foster said of Duncan. “There was a lot of outside noise and he was still finding ways to focus on exactly what he needed to focus on, and that was just improving his play. So I commend Luke for the way he approached this whole spring and then coming to this stadium and having a good practice.”
Duncan took first- and second-team repetitions Saturday as part of a surreal scene in which fellow quarterback Nick Billoups also participated despite being in the transfer portal. That status also applied to edge rusher Jacob Busic, who made a stop on a ballcarrier despite also being in the transfer portal and not listed on the roster that was distributed before the showcase.
Meanwhile, the player who will be the Bruins’ starting quarterback in their season opener watched from the sideline while the player he’s replacing, Joey Aguilar, is still taking classes at UCLA on his way to taking Iamaleava’s place at Tennessee.
It’s all part of the bizarre nature of college football in 2025.
“It’s just where college football is at,” said linebacker Isaiah Chisom, himself a product of the transfer portal after recently arriving from Oregon State, “and what I always tell people [is], everybody has to do what’s best for them, whatever that really looks like, and we don’t know the real stories behind what’s actually making people make these type of decisions, so I’m not mad at anybody for going or coming.”
Offensive lineman Julian Armella, a transfer from Florida State who projects to start at right guard, said he was able to speak with Nico Iamaleava during a campus visit a few weeks ago and was eager to add him to the team.
“At the end of the day, I know that UCLA and all of this fan base is excited to have him,” Armella said, “so I know that once he gets up here we’re going to be able to roll.”
Foster said once Nico Iamaleava completes his final semester at Tennessee this month, he’ll be able to start corresponding online with coaches as part of a transition that might be easier than it seems.
“When you’re switching teams, it’s not the hardest thing to do,” Foster said. “It’s mostly just figuring out what we call something that they already call, so it’s not like we have to teach him a whole new playbook, it’s more of him figuring out the calls and what we call something he already had. Him being an intelligent kid, has a high GPA, smart on and off the field, we’re just looking forward to getting the opportunity to teach him.”
Given the way a host of transfers have come together quickly this spring, Armella said, he anticipated Nico Iamaleava having a similarly smooth transition.
“Our coaching staff has done a great job of getting guys like me and these other transfers up to par and up to speed,” Armella said, “so I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll be able to come in here and be able to fit into the system. He’s going to be new here, but at the end of the day he’ll be able to get it done.”
The next time Nico Iamaleava walks out of the Rose Bowl tunnel, it will be for his UCLA debut against Utah on Aug. 30, all eyes focused on the new quarterback.
“It’s gonna be a good season and — what do they say, get your popcorn ready?” Foster said. “So you get your popcorn ready.”