UCLA football received good news late Monday afternoon, as quarterback Nico Iamaleava announced on Instagram that he will be returning to the team for the 2026 season.
“No place like home,” his post reads. “Back with my brothers. Same vision. Same goals. Same grind. Locked in. Time to work!”
A Long Beach native who attended both Warren High School and Long Beach Polytechnic High School, Iamaleava joined UCLA last season as a redshirt sophomore following two years at Tennessee.
In his red shirt freshman season with the Volunteers, he threw for 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns while leading Tennessee to the first round of the College Football Playoff.
After that season, Iamaleava shocked the world when he decided to enter the transfer portal and come back home to Southern California.
Iamaleava’s move to Westwood was considered controversial, as he wanted to renegotiate his NIL deal with the school, which lead to him transferring from Tennessee to UCLA.
In his first season with the Bruins, he appeared in 11 of a possible 12 games, passing for 1,928 yards, 13 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. He also led the team in rushing with 505 yards and four touchdowns.
UCLA’s difficult 3-9 season was marked by significant turnover on the coaching staff, especially on offense, as both head coach DeShaun Foster and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri were dismissed during the season. The high point of the season was a three-game winning streak under interim head coach Tim Skipper and interim offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel, during which Iamaleava threw for 567 yards and six touchdowns while rushing for 156 yards and three touchdowns.
In the offseason, UCLA hired James Madison’s Bob Chesney as its new head coach. Chesney will be bringing James Madison offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy along with him to serve in the same role. It appears they have the quarterback who will be guiding their first offense in Westwood.