The UCLA Bruins are set to open the fall season at home Saturday night against former Pac-12 opponent Utah in a game the Athletic’s Steven Louis Goldstein has deemed a “best potential chaos agent.” Kickoff is set for 11 p.m. ET.
“The latest of late kickoffs teems with inherent chaos. Utah was also a sleeper of disorder last year. While the Utes only won five games, they pushed ranked Iowa State to a field goal-finish and lost to then-No. 9 BYU by one point,” Goldstein wrote. “Devon Dampier, brought over from New Mexico, has dual-threat swagger and question-mark upside. UCLA landed electric QB transfer Nico Iamaleava in the offseason portal. Iamaleava is coming off a CFP bid with Tennessee, and he gets to reset at the Rose Bowl.”
It’s expected to be a quarterback battle at the Rose Bowl.
Nico Iamaleava joined the Bruins from Tennessee in April. Since, he’s fit right in at UCLA.
“He's just a talent. It's not anything that I saw him do last season, it's more of what I had seen him do all the way up,” Foster said at Big Ten Football Media Days last month. “Him being a local quarterback, I've seen him play a few times and he's played with a lot of players that are on our team, so there's a lot of familiarity there. Just being able to come back home and be comfortable and being in a familiar environment, I think sky's the limit. So we're excited about this.”
But Utah’s Devon Dampier has a bit of a leg up on the California native. Though both junior quarterbacks transferred this year, Dampier committed to the Utes in December after two seasons with New Mexico. Iamaleava didn’t leave Knoxville until the end of April, meaning Dampier has had four extra months to learn a new system.
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“Having him here in spring was huge for us,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. “He was like another coach on the field because obviously he knows Jason's offense inside and out. So being able to install a new offense with a new coordinator, with a quarterback who knows it, that's a big advantage for us. He's been a huge help for his teammates.”