Nico Iamaleava had his worst performance on the biggest stage last season.

In his first College Football Playoff appearance, Iamaleava completed just 14-of-31 passes for 104 yards, costing his team a trip to the Rose Bowl as eventual national champion Ohio State trampled Iamaleava and Tennessee 42-17.

But Iamaleava’s next trip to the gridiron will be in Pasadena anyway.

The former Volunteer became UCLA football’s highest-rated quarterback commit in the history of 247Sports rankings when he announced his transfer to the school Sunday via Instagram, beating out former Bruin Dante Moore – both were part of the 2023 recruiting class.

[Related: 5-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava transfers to UCLA amid spring training]

Iamaleava’s addition to the Bruins gives coach DeShaun Foster the quarterback he needs to build the team he wants – and brings UCLA the national attention the coach has desired since taking the helm.

“When’s the last time we had this many people here talking to us?” Foster asked the room of eight or so reporters at Wasserman Football Center on Tuesday, just ahead of the Bruins’ 10th spring practice at Spaulding Field. “He’s a good buzz for us. And keeping the local kids here – (he’s a) big time recruit – let them know you don’t have to go to certain conferences to be successful and make it to the NFL, you can do it right here in California.”

Of the 2023 cohort’s top three quarterbacks, Iamaleava is considerably further along in his development. He’s thrown for 2,930 yards and 21 touchdowns at a 63.8% completion rate across two seasons in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Meanwhile, Arch Manning – 2023’s top-rated recruit – has yet to breach 100 passes, throwing for just 969 yards on 95 attempts after spending much of his first two years at Texas as Quinn Ewers’ understudy.

And after Moore threw the keys to the Bruin offense directly into the hands of an opposing defender, the five-star signal-caller transferred to Oregon, where he spent 2024 in the shadow of Dillon Gabriel.

Iamaleava essentially brought along his younger brother, four-star quarterback Madden Iamaleava, to Westwood – and with that, an Iamaleava under center for potentially the next five seasons.

Foster added Tuesday that Iamaleava came to UCLA with a desire to be closer to home and the opportunity to compete as a Bruin – not for any name, image and likeness incentives, as has been reported as the catalyst for the end of his Volunteer career.

“A player that wanted to come home and be closer to his family,” Foster said. “I know that he accepted our contract and he wants to be a Bruin, so that’s all I’m focused on.”

But even if Iamaleava leaves Westwood after a single season, he still has plenty of reasons to give 2025 his all.

The former five-star, who exceeded 250 passing yards in just three regular season games last season, has a lot to prove if he still wants his rumored $4 million NIL deal next season, a figure his camp requested from Tennessee, per ESPN.

Plus, as Foster said Tuesday, newly minted offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri has built his reputation on getting the most out of a one-year starting quarterback.

“Tino is a great coach,” Foster said. “He has a pretty good track record of one-and-dones – being with the guy one year and him being successful the next year. So we’re just excited. He’s excited for what’s going on.”

Under Sunseri’s tutelage at Indiana, quarterback Kurtis Rourke – a two-star recruit out of high school – went from throwing for 2,207 yards and 11 touchdowns at a 63.5% clip at Ohio to 3,042 yards, 29 touchdowns on a 69.4% completion rate in 2024, leading the Hoosiers to a CFP appearance and an 11-win season.

And Iamaleava easily has the most potential of any collegiate signal-caller Sunseri’s worked with.

For all the narratives of Iamaleava being a selfish diva who lacks the maturity needed to lead a program, a pay cut, a trip back home and less time under the spotlight of the Southeastern Conference could ground the 20-year-old.

But even if it doesn’t, the Bruin faithful never seemed to mind a little overconfident swagger from under center, whether it be Dorian Thompson-Robinson or Josh Rosen – so long as it came with on-field results.

Last season, the Bruins were plagued by poor quarterback play from Ethan Garbers – who threw 11 interceptions to just 16 touchdowns – a weak offensive line that allowed the 25th most sacks per game and limited UCLA to the third fewest rushing yards per game in 2024 and an offensive coordinator in Eric Bieniemy, who was unable to find any consistency in his short tenure at UCLA.

Foster responded by parting ways with Bieniemy and former offensive line coach Juan Castillo in favor of Sunseri and Andy Kwon, respectively – and is now adding Iamaleava into the mix.

Foster has long emphasized recruiting the best high school talent from Los Angeles and Southern California after former head coach Chip Kelly’s long documented failures in bringing in players from UCLA’s backyard. If Iamaleava, a Downey, California, local, can show what UCLA can do for Southern Californian kids with NFL dreams, there’s no telling what talent the Bruins’ future pipeline may bring.

“If it wasn’t a local kid, it would have been a little bit more difficult,” Foster said. “But being able that we did see him play in high school and evaluating that film at Tennessee wasn’t hard to do. … It’s going to keep the California kids and LA kids here. This is a big thing.”

The early narrative surrounding Iamaleava is that he is a greedy, toxic presence that UCLA is just too desperate to pass up.

But like Foster said, you can’t always trust what makes it to Instagram’s explore page. What’s most important to him, he added, is that his players are excited to have Iamaleava in Westwood.

“A respectful kid,” Foster said. “A competitor, somebody that wants to play football and wants to compete. So we’re just excited to get him here. A lot of these kids that we have on this team played with him at some level and knows him. So there’s a lot of familiarity.”

Winning fixes everything. It turns perceived douchebags into sparkplugs and college football afterthoughts into bowl game contenders.

And Iamaleava has all the talent, support and reasons to make next season the best UCLA has seen from a quarterback in a minute.