How Did These UCLA Transfers Perform in 2024? Part 1

The 2025 college football season is looming which means UCLA Bruins fans will finally get their first look at some of the Bruins' incoming transfers from the offseason.

DeShaun Foster went to work in the transfer portal in his first full offseason as Westwood's head coach and lured 29 transfers to cultivate the 20th-ranked transfer class in the nation on 247Sports' transfer ranking board.

In this new UCLA Bruins on SI series, we're going to dive into each transfer and how they did last season, including a few evaluations from national college football analysts.

In part one, we're starting at the top with the Bruins' three highest impact transfers in the class -- Nico Iamaleava, Jaivian Thomas and Eugene Brooks.

Nico Iamaleava, Redshirt Sophomore TR QB, Tennessee Volunteers

What more is there left to say about Iamaleava? He is the main topic of discussion ahead of UCLA's season and was the No. 1 overall transfer in the portal season. He led Tennessee to the CFP and threw for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions in his redshirt freshman season.

"Former five-star recruit with elite physical tools and one of the highest ceilings in college football. A long, athletic frame paired with top-end arm strength makes Iamaleava a prototypical modern quarterback from a traits standpoint. Showed flashes of brilliance during Tennessee’s 2024 College Football Playoff run, but overall passing production remained modest (77th nationally in passing offense) in a system that leaned heavily on the run game and defense.

"Plays best when allowed to extend plays and improvise, but struggles to consistently operate within structure. Decision-making and timing remain works in progress, particularly on intermediate throws and against disguised coverage. Can be streaky with accuracy and doesn’t always play on schedule, but has shown the ability to generate explosive plays when things break down.

"Intangibles — including poise, anticipation, and leadership consistency — are still developing. That said, the upside remains massive. With continued growth in processing speed and pocket discipline, Iamaleava has the natural ability to elevate a contender and play his way into Round 1 of the NFL Draft." -- Cooper Petagna, 247Sports National Recruiting Analyst

Jaivian Thomas, Junior TR RB, California Golden Bears

Thomas will come in making an immediate impact as UCLA's projected starting running back. He was the No. 11 running back in the transfer portal and had a formidable year with Cal, finishing with seven touchdowns and 626 yards on 100 attempts.

"Thomas is a solidly-built 5-10 and might even be a little bigger than his listed 190 pounds. His nickname is "Jet" because of his good speed and explosiveness. He was Cal's leading rusher in 2024, compiling 626 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on just 100 carries, averaging a very impressive 6.26 yards per attempt. He shows good vision and awareness, and being on the smaller side is able to slip through smaller holes. He exhibits a veteran's decision-making and technique, and has nice balance and strength, which enables him to run between the tackles better than you might expect.

"He's not an ultra-shifty type for his size, but can make a would-be tackler miss and then get up field in a hurry. Once he's on the second level he has another gear, which enabled him to rack up some big-chunk plays for Cal. He came to Cal at probably 180 pounds and was more of a switch-up back, but now looks to have the strength and physique to carry more of the first-string load. Whether he can make that transition to the full-time, every-down back is the question." -- Bruin Report Online Staff

Eugene Brooks, Redshirt Freshamn TR IOL, Oklahoma Sooners

Brooks comes to Westwood by way of Oklahoma and bolsters the future of UCLA's offensive line. He is currently projected to back up redshirt senior Oluwafunto Akinshilo at left guard despite having starter-level talent. As a four-star out of high school, Brooks has upside as a Bruin.

"This is a big pickup, and sort of a classic UCLA pickup. The SoCal bounceback who goes out of region and finds things not to his liking is a time-honored UCLA tradition, and it is a well-trodden path for many of UCLA best players over the years. While some of the other transfers UCLA has added were formerly highly rated high school prospects who saw their stars diminish in their college careers, Brooks is still on the ascent, having, again, only redshirted like true freshman offensive linemen often do. For our money, this is probably UCLA's best pickup so far in the Portal, and given that it is at a position of need, this was a big early coup for Andy Kwon in trying to rebuild this fairly broken offensive line." -- Bruin Report Online Staff

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