Ranking Nico Iamaleava's 2024 Performances: #3 Kentucky

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, moving onto No. 3 -- Nov. 2 vs Kentucky.

This was one of Iamaleava's best quality passing performances of the season. Even though he only finished with one passing touchdown, he was efficient and orchestrated solid scoring drives to get a great win over the Wildcats.

Iamaleava finished this 28-18 win with 292 passing yards on 28-for-38 (73.7%) completions -- his most passing attempts of the season -- for a touchdown, and added 14 yards on the ground on seven attempts. He finished this game with a 146.9 passer rating and an ESPN Adjusted QBR rating of 80.4. His 28 completions and 38 passing attempts are still career-highs for his collegiate career.

Tennessee's first scoring drive was a 14-play, 64-yard drive over 4:54 that ended with a Peyton Lewis rushing touchdown to tie the game at 7-7 with 4:45 remaining in the second quarter. Their next one came in the third quarter, where Dylan Sampson ran for a seven-yard score after five plays and 28 yards.

Iamaleava passed for his only touchdown on the ensuing scoring drive, a two-play, 10-yard drive that ended in a six-yard pass to tight end Miles Kitselman to push the lead to 21-10 with 33 seconds left in the third quarter.

Games like this against Kentucky are crucial to a dynamic player like Iamaleava. It shows Bruins fans that he's able to deliver a solid performance against difficult opponents. This will be essential in the Big Ten.

UCLA won't be playing as bad opponents this season as Tennessee did last season, being in the Big Ten and only having three non-conference games, but the Bruins should be favored against their first three opponents anyways.

They open the season against Utah, UNLV and New Mexico before opening up Big Ten play against Northwestern. Coupling Iamaleava's expected leap ahead of his redshirt sophomore season and how good he was against non-conference opponents last season, UCLA has a great chance at starting next season 4-0.