Ranking Nico Iamaleava's 2024 Performances: #6 UTEP

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. 6 -- Nov. 23 vs UTEP.

This was a career game for Iamaleava and the second shutout of Tennessee's season, a 56-0 domination over the Miners. Iamaleava ended this shellacking with four touchdowns for 209 yards in 17-of-23 (73.9%) completions. He added 36 yards on the ground on seven carries, too. The redshirt freshman finished one of his most complete games of the season with a 207.9 passer rating and a 70.9 ESPN Adjusted QBR rating.

Despite this being arguably Iamaleava's best passing game of the season, it was against UTEP, with all due respect. Similar to his matchup against Mississippi State in the last game of this series, we put this game higher on the list because of the strength of the opponent.

Iamaleava tossed three of his four passing touchdowns in the second quarter, as part of the Vols' 28 total points.

The first one came on a nine-yard pass to wide receiver Squirrel White with 7:33 remaining in the first half to cap off a four-play, 36-yard drive over a minute and 43 seconds. His next touchdown came five minutes later, a one-yard pass to tight end Ethan Davis. Tennessee capped off the first half when Iamaleava found wide receiver Bruh McCoy for an 18-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone to give the Vols a 28-0 lead into halftime.

Iamaleava threw his fourth and final touchdown in the second quarter on a seven-yard pass back to McCoy with 13:32 remaining.

A game like this as a redshirt freshman is pretty promising. It also gives hope to Bruins fans because it shows how good Iamaleava will/can be against lesser opponents. 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.