DeShaun Foster on added attention with Nico Iamaleava: ‘You want to have haters’

There’s certainly a lot more attention being paid to UCLA due to the addition of former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Head coach DeShaun Foster doesn’t mind one bit.

The Bruins leader realizes there will be more eyes on his program moving forward. That’s where Foster wants UCLA to be. He certainly doesn’t regret adding a player of Iamaleava’s caliber to his team, even with the baggage his dramatic exit from the Volunteers brought.

“You want to be in conversations. You want to play big-time ball. You want to have people who, you know — you want to have haters. You want all this stuff, because that means that you’re trending in the right direction,” Foster told the media. “So, if you want to play big-time ball, you can do that here at UCLA. We’ve got a quarterback situation that’s going to pan out for us, and we’re just looking forward to it.

“When’s the last time we had this many people here talking to us? You guys know what I’m saying. It’s a good buzz for us. Keeping the local kids here, big-time recruits, letting them know that you don’t have to go to a certain conference to be successful and make it to the NFL, you can do it right here in California.”

All told, many of Iamaleava’s haters reside in Knoxville, after couldn’t come to an agreement with Tennessee on a restructured NIL deal, leading to him entering the portal. Iamaleava was reportedly seeking a $4 million deal from the Volunteers, a significant raise from his reported pre-existing $2.4 million deal. 

Specific details haven’t emerged regarding Iamaleava’s NIL deal with UCLA but Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster referred to it as “successful.” In fact, Foster refused to go into much detail at all about Iamaleava’s deal.

“I don’t see it should,” Foster said when asked how money affects players who are in the transfer portal or considering entering. “He could have got — well, I’m not even gonna speak on it. But, I don’t think the money played a role in somebody staying or going.”

Foster’s latter sentence is key. The Bruins didn’t only add to its roster with its move to acquire Iamaleava, it also lost quarterback Joey Aguilar. The veteran quarterback transferred to UCLA from Appalachian State in December but hit the portal again when UCLA formally signed Iamaleava.

Ironically, Aguilar ended up where Iamaleava had come from: Tennessee. And evidently, Tennessee picked up the experienced QB at a discount. According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, Tennessee is expected to pay Aguilar up to seven figures less than Iamaleava’s scheduled $2.4 million compensation.

Regardless of the money, DeShaun Foster is elated to have Nico Iamaleava on his team, and he believes we’re entering a new era for UCLA. The Bruins will have a bigger spotlight on them than they did in 2024, and we’ll find out quick if their head coach is built for the challenge or not.

— On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this article.