What UCLA's Iamaleava Shared After Dominant Penn State Showing

The UCLA Bruins achieved what seemed to be impossible, given the season behind them, by taking down the No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions, 42-37.

Star quarterback Nico Iamaleava had his "Welcome To Westwood" moment, finishing the game scoring five total touchdowns -- two passing and three rushing -- while throwing for 166 yards on 17-of-24 completions and rushing for 128 yards on 16 attempts.

ucl — Oct 4, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9) passes the ball during the fourth quarter against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Here's a transcript of what Iamaleava said postgame after his breakout performance:

On his feelings after the win:

“Man, it feels great. We finally put it all together on the offensive side of the ball. We were able to score some points and come out victorious. The defense did a great job holding them down on the last drive.”

On his impactful message to the team during the week:

“It was just a lot of outside noise coming into it. I just was preaching to the guys ‘If you don’t want to be here, leave.’ Basically, telling the guys, whoever still believes that we’re still in this and we still have games ahead of us that we can win, let’s roll.”

ucl — Oct 4, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9) scores a touchdown on 1 yard run during the third quarter against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

On playing under Jerry Neuheisel:

“Coach Jerry has been here for a while now. I knew Coach Jerry going back to my senior year when UCLA was recruiting me. So I have a good feel for Coach Jerry. He puts that belief in us that we can go out and execute. He put a great game plan together for us to go out and execute.”

On using his legs against Penn State:

“I was just taking what the defense was giving me. They’re playing great coverage on the back end. It was fun for me to use my legs. We were able to convert some big third downs and keep the drive going.”

ucl — Oct 4, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava (9) runs with the ball during the third quarter against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

On keeping the faith:

“I think these past four games, a lot of self-afflicted things were happening to us and we ended up coming up short. I’ve always seen the skill level and the belief in our guys. Our coaches kept us afloat. We have the right guys to do it, we just have to go execute. Today was a great display of that.”

On UCLA's fast start against the Nittany Lions:

“Coach Skip was preaching to us to strain and start fast. It was a lot of games where we could have started fast like that and felt better about the game. We’ve been coming from behind these last four games, and it felt great to get a lead.”

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