Nico Iamaleava is one of the largest topics of conversation in college football ahead of his redshirt sophomore season with the UCLA Bruins.

After a stellar redshirt freshman season with the Tennessee Volunteers that led them to their first ever College Football Playoff appearance, Iamaleava entered the transfer portal after a NIL dispute that was largely publicized and turned him into one of the most polarizing figures in college football.

He finished last season leading the Vols to a 10-3 record and passed for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions on 63.8% (213-334) completion percentage. With that being said, let’s rank Iamaleava’s best performances of the season, moving onto No. 9 — Sept. 21 at Oklahoma.

We’re at the point of the series where Iamaleava is stacking up wins, but they aren’t coming pretty. In the last two games, one of which was a win against Florida, Tennessee was carried by running back Dylan Sampson, as Iamaleava struggled to get anything going. In this game, it was the defense.

Iamaleava finished the 25-15 win over the Sooners with a passing touchdown and 194 passing yards on 13-of-21 (61.9%) completions. He also rushed for 15 yards on eight carries and posted a 155.2 passer rating and a 58.7 ESPN Adjusted QBR rating.

The Vols opened the game with a Jermod McCoy interception that led to a Max Gilbert field goal. After Oklahoma tied the game with a field goal of its own, Iamaleava found wide receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr. for a 66-yard passing touchdown, the longest pass of the game.

This game was largely a result of Tennessee’s defense. On the ensuing drives, the Vols forced a fumble and then a safety, extending the lead to 12-3 midway through the second quarter. The defense forced yet another turnover on the next drive, which led to a Sampson touchdown and pushed the lead to 19-3 going into halftime.

Although Tennessee didn’t score the rest of the game, besides a field goal in each of the last two quarters, and Oklahoma scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter, the first-half deficit was too much to overcome.

This is one of those games that shows UCLA’s defense may need to just have one of those games this season. Sure, Iamaleava didn’t perform to the standards one would expect, but the defense kept Oklahoma at bay regardless.

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