UCLA football boosted its team with the arrival of top transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri.
Coach Deshaun Foster has implemented a highly secretive approach to fall camp, limiting what people know about UCLA.
The Bruins face another challenging schedule in 2025, which will test if they are a dark horse playoff team.
LOS ANGELES — It’s a mystery what’s brewing in Westwood.
After a middling debut season in the Big Ten, UCLA went from a hazy future to suddenly one filled with optimism.
It landed arguably the top transfer in the country, a College Football Playoff-experienced quarterback in Nico Iamaleava. He was part of a transfer portal haul that’s top 20 in the country according to 247Sports. The high school recruiting class isn’t bad either. Plus, Tino Sunseri – instrumental in Indiana’s electric offense last season – is now offensive coordinator.
Quickly, the Bruins looked like they could make some noise. Maybe become a surprise College Football Playoff contender.
But for a team that has struggled to generate interest recently, the Bruins haven’t been doing much outwardly excited the fan base.
In his second season at his alma mater, coach Deshaun Foster has restricted how much the outside world can get a glimpse into preseason preparations. The team left Los Angeles and started fall camp 41 miles away in Costa Mesa. He has limited media viewing and interviews, and not revealed much when he does talk. No photos or videos from practice, including a session open to the public at the Rose Bowl.
His reasoning? Not letting an opponent get an edge into what is happening.
“You guys film our practice and put it online,” Foster told the media. “If I was an opponent for another team, I’d look right at you guys and stuff and see what’s going on. So for them not to get a beat on (Sunseri) or depth or anything that’s going on, that’s why it’s closed.”
Well then. While it can be interpreted several ways, especially when it’s a team in need of connecting with its fans and generating hype, maybe Foster does have something worth hiding. With 50 new players and eight new assistants, it’s unknown how the Bruins will look. Keeping it secret has advantages.
Nico Iamaleava will be in UCLA spotlight
But we do know it starts at quarterback.
Iamaleava hasn’t talked much − and it isn’t just because he’s a quiet person. He has avoided reporters, but when he spoke to the media three days before the season opener, he was smiling about playing his first game at the Rose Bowl.
It was a weird offseason full of twists and turns. Now, he can put it all behind him and showcase what made him such a highly-praised recruit.
‘It’s been an exciting moment for me just to get out there and go play football again,’ Iamaleava said. ‘I can’t wait to just get out there.’
Not much speaking, but his coach and teammates have been doing plenty of that for him, praising his actions and reinvigorating excitement in the program.
“Since he’s came here, he just had his head down. He kept his nose down and he worked,” said offensive lineman Julian Armella. “Whenever he comes out here, you see the leader. Whenever he steps out on the field, he commands a presence.”
Iamaleava brings a resume UCLA hasn’t experienced this century. The Bruins last played in a major bowl game in the 1999 Rose Bowl, the first season of the Bowl Championship Series. In his first season as starter, Iamaleava threw for 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns at Tennessee last season, leading the Volunteers to the College Football Playoff.
There’s no media footage of him at Bruins practice, but the school has shown him off on social media with several throws showcasing the arm strength that made him such a prized recruit.
“Nico at quarterback, he’s one of the most impressive players I’ve ever been around,” said tight end Hudson Habermehl.
The arrival of Sunseri, who is a rising offensive mind in the sport, is a coup for Iamaleava. With Indiana last season, Sunseri was influential in helping the Hoosiers to the second-best scoring offense in the country.
Since he was quarterbacks coach at James Madison in 2021, Sunseri’s signal-callers have thrown for at least 2,600 yards and 25 touchdowns with a 63% completion percentage every season.
Iamaleava also credited his offensive coordinator for helping him get out of his comfort zone and be more vocal. Sunseri stressed his quarterback’s voice is important, and when he speaks, everyone in the room is listening.
The combination of quarterback and play caller should give the UCLA a needed boost; the Bruins had the eighth-worst scoring offense and were 16th-worst in total offense. In addition to scoring more points, improvement on that side of the ball will help a defense that was mainly the reason UCLA was able to rebound from a 1-5 start.
Even though he’s known for his work quarterbacks, what really drew Foster to Sunseri was his approach to the running game, noting he ‘checked all the boxes’ for what he wanted in a balanced offense. It was tough for Foster, a former NFL running back, to have see his running game in 2024 average 86.6 yards per game, third-worst in FBS.
“We’re going to be able to make sure that we’re going to be able to stretch the field vertically and horizontally. To be able to make sure the defense blade guards every single blade of grass,” Sunseri said.
UCLA looking to build on strong finish
The improved offense and a close knit team that connected over “Brotherhood” meetings during fall camp intends to build on optimism from the improved play at the end of last season. UCLA finished 5-7 and didn’t qualify for a bowl game in a full season for the first time since 2019, but four wins in its last six games showed signs of a team that could be competitive in the Big Ten.
This season will put Foster’s theory on growing his team’s popularity to the test. When asked if he was worried limited media would hurt the marketing of it, he responsed there’s only one true way to do it, and that’s to produce results.
“If you win games, you’re marketed,” he said. “We’re going to go out there and focus on winning games.”
The summer sun sure does shine in Southern California. When the team was in Costa Mesa, Foster said he felt like he needed to put his sunglasses on.
It wasn’t because of the sun. Rather, because Foster feels his team’s future is incredibly bright.
Corny? Sure, but the man in charge of the Bruins feels like his team is on the rise.
We’ll soon find out if we’ll need a pair of shades too.