Ranking Nico Iamaleava's 2024 Performances: #13 Ohio State

Nico Iamaleava is one of the largest topics of conversation in college football ahead of his redshirt sophomore season with the UCLA Bruins.

After a stellar redshirt freshman season with the Tennessee Volunteers that led them to their first ever College Football Playoff appearance, Iamaleava entered the transfer portal after a NIL dispute that was largely publicized and turned him into one of the most polarizing figures in college football.

He finished last season leading the Vols to a 10-3 record and passed for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions on 63.8% (213-334) completion percentage. With that being said, let's rank Iamaleava's best performances of the season, starting with No. 13 -- CFP First Round vs. Ohio State.

Of course, if you're a Bruins fan, you're not going to like seeing your new star quarterback's "worst" game of the season being a postseason game, but the context is surely helpful. It was Iamaleava's worst passing game of the season, but he did finish the game with two rushing touchdowns.

His full stat line for the game was 14-for-31(45.2%) passing attempts for 104 passing yards, four sacks, 47 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries (the most he had all season) all for a passer rating of 73.3 and an ESPN Adjusted QBR rating of 61.9.

It was the eventual national champion Buckeyes' game from the start, jumping out to a 21-0 lead. After scoring a field goal late in the second quarter, the Tennessee defense forced a three-and-out which led to a 16-play drive that finished with Iamaleava's first score of the game, a two-yard rushing touchdown that cut Ohio State's lead to 21-10 before halftime.

Ohio State didn't let up coming out of the locker rooms for the second half, scoring on each of its first three drives before Tennessee could even add one, which was Iamaleava's second rushing touchdown of the game with 1:56 remaining in the game. The Buckeyes won 42-17.

Let's put this into context for Iamaleava, though. Optically, yes, this was a bad game. But this was his first ever postseason game as a redshirt freshman and he was playing against the best team in the nation. Despite struggling passing, he was able to march the Vols down the field on multiple long drives and get on the board with his legs.

Iamaleava showed poise in college football's toughest conference all last season and is sure to be one of the Big Ten's best signal-callers this coming season.