Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava (8) throws during the second half of the College Football Playoff first round game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Dec. 22, 2024. Ohio State won 42-17. Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

UCLA's DeShaun Foster on Landing Iamaleava Brothers

Originally posted on UCLA Bruins on SI
By Aidan Champion | Last updated May 29, 2025 11:12 PM ET

UCLA football made some noise this spring when it was able to lure Nico and Madden Iamaleava to Westwood.

Nico, of course, was the center of the college football world in April when he held out of spring practice with Tennessee and transferred out. And he landed at UCLA, bringing all that national attention to a program that had been in the shadows after a sub-par first season in the Big Ten.

Shortly after, the Bruins landed his younger brother, Madden, another highly touted quarterback, who had initially been committed to UCLA before flipping to Arkansas.

UCLA DeShaun Foster recently discussed the attention that Nico brought his program during his appearance on the Unafraid Show with George Wrighster.

"Being that he's a playoff quarterback, it was huge," Foster said. "It was on every television, all social media streams, everything. But when you're getting a big-time quarterback, somebody that can catapult this program in the direction that we need to go in, it was something that I had to do.

"I already had a previous relationship with Nic (the brothers' father) and Madden, and at the last second, he ended up wanting to go somewhere else, but at the end of the day, they're right back home, where they need to be."

Foster said landing the Iamaleava brothers was a benefit for recruiting.

"Guys were like, 'Oh, they're coming? OK, cool,'" he said. 'And kind of made more and more people want to jump in the boat. Because when you have a high profile quarterback like that and a lot of these local players have played with him, they know what he can do, and they want to jump on board."

With all the movement in the quarterback room, UCLA has had to get its new quarterbacks caught up and familiarized with a coach who himself is new to the program, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri.

"Just finding ways to steal reps," Foster said. "Any time he (Nico) can come up here and meet with Tino, then that's what they can do. But he just finished school last week, so everything is going in the right direction, and I'm just excited to see how much growth he has once we do come back together."

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