What Happened
Nico Iamaleava says he does not regret his 2025 exit from Tennessee and will stay at UCLA for Bob Chesney’s first season, as Chancellor Julio Frenk dismissed athletic director Martin Jarmond on Monday before the Bruins open Saturday, Sept. 5, at California.
Iamaleava’s decision keeps UCLA’s most prominent offensive player with a 3-9 roster and gives Chesney an early vote of confidence after the quarterback weighed whether the new coach could build a competitive program. Chesney and Iamaleava now lead UCLA’s latest effort to turn a 3-9 team into a credible Big Ten program while the athletic department changes leadership.
Asked by USA TODAY Sports whether he would handle his Tennessee departure differently, Iamaleava said he would not.
> “At that point, the narrative was out there, whatever narratives they made, so I didn't really feel the need to talk, let them run with their stories, and the truth will come out eventually. I think no, I wouldn't have anything different.”
Iamaleava left Tennessee after spring football in 2025. In April 2025, he sought to renegotiate an NIL deal reported at more than $2 million annually; ESPN, citing sources, reported that his representatives sought $4 million a year and used the transfer portal as leverage. The talks stalled, Iamaleava missed Tennessee’s final spring practice and spring game, and coach Josh Heupel said the Volunteers were moving on.
As a Tennessee redshirt freshman, Iamaleava passed for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Why This One Matters
UCLA went 3-9 in 2025, losing its final five games after Iamaleava led an upset of Penn State that launched a three-game winning streak. Deshaun Foster was fired after the third loss of an 0-4 start and finished 5-10 as the Bruins’ coach.
The instability predates last fall. UCLA has gone 36-33 under three coaches over six years, with one bowl victory. The Bruins averaged 37,282 fans at the Rose Bowl last season — 41.6% of the stadium’s 89,702 capacity.
Jarmond’s dismissal adds an athletic-department reset to Chesney’s first season. UCLA entered the Big Ten during Jarmond’s six-year tenure, and the athletic department carried $51.8 million in debt when fiscal 2024 closed, requiring a university bailout.
“UCLA Athletics currently carries a significant financial deficit,” Frenk wrote Monday, “and its current path is not sustainable.”
What Most People Are Missing
Iamaleava’s return was not automatic after UCLA’s collapse. Staying near his Long Beach family mattered, but so did Chesney’s ability to show him a program built around people who shared his competitive approach. Neither Iamaleava nor UCLA has detailed the standards he wanted from the incoming staff.
Chesney said their conversations quickly clarified why Iamaleava wanted to remain.
> “I realized just first of all how much he loves his family, and how much he wanted to stay here. I realized all those things to be true. I realized that he was a guy that is competitive and wants to know that there’s a program going to be built with people that share his competitive spirit.”
Offensive lineman Julian Armella said Iamaleava has helped bring the offense together.
> “Nico has done a great job of building all of the guys up to make sure that we’re all collectively coming together as a unit.”
Next Man Up
Chesney inherited a quarterback around whom he can build instead of beginning with a quarterback search. Iamaleava experienced both sides of UCLA’s 2025 season: the Penn State win and the five losses that followed.
The leadership vacancy remains above the program. Tim Harris is serving in an unpaid interim role as chief executive and director of athletics, but UCLA has not named Jarmond’s permanent successor or said how it will address the department’s debt.
The Pate State Read
Iamaleava’s Tennessee dispute will remain part of his story. His choice to stay, though, keeps a proven starter in place for a coach taking over a roster that needs more than another personnel reset.
Iamaleava did not prevent UCLA’s 3-9 finish last season, and UCLA has not specified what Chesney will change on the field. Retaining the quarterback was the first move, not the turnaround.
What to Watch Next
At California on Sept. 5, the first result under Chesney will offer the initial read on whether UCLA can avoid another poor start after last season’s 0-4 opening. Iamaleava’s touchdowns and turnovers will provide the clearest box-score measure of whether his flashes become steadier production.
The Sept. 12 home opener against San Diego State also puts Rose Bowl attendance against last season’s 37,282 average.
“I want to win games,” Iamaleava said, “and everything else will come with that.”
Articles are drafted from Josh Pate's College Football Show under the site's editorial standards and monitored by the editorial team — corrections are timestamped, never silent.
CONTINUED FROM THE NOTEBOOK
LSU compliance plan forces SEC rules showdown
A Louisiana eligibility order could let LSU add former professionals as other SEC schools consider penalties, litigation and a challenge to championship access.
ANALYSISProduced with Pate State AI · reviewed by The Pate State editorial teamStandards 📝 The NotebookTS
The Pate State StaffSEP 2, 2026
What Happened
LSU plans to comply with a Louisiana court order granting a fifth year of eligibility to more than 40 athletes, including some who signed professional contracts and appeared in NFL preseason games, as executives from the SEC’s other 15 schools weigh responses that include a boycott, probation, federal litigation and expulsion.
The dispute has reached the Tigers before their Saturday, Sept. 5 opener against Clemson. LSU could add players otherwise barred by SEC and NCAA rules, while the conference must decide whether a Louisiana state-court order can keep it from enforcing its own membership rules against one school.
That puts LSU’s access to SEC championship competition alongside the league’s authority to apply the same roster rules to every member. No SEC vote, penalty or federal lawsuit has been announced.
One SEC source described the reaction from around the league bluntly: “Enough is enough. This is ridiculous.”
A Baton Rouge judge first barred the NCAA from applying its rules against former professionals seeking to return to college athletics. The judge later accepted an amended complaint seeking to stop the SEC from enforcing its ban on former professional players.
LSU has indicated it will follow the local order, opening the door to signing former professionals. No such addition has been announced, and it remains unclear whether the ruling extends beyond LSU-affiliated plaintiffs.
Why This One Matters
The potential player pool is real, even if LSU’s practical benefit remains unknown. More than 40 athletes received the fifth year in the ruling; 15 other SEC schools are discussing ways to stop LSU from using the order in conference competition.
Jack Plyburn illustrates the limits of that pool. He said he would return to LSU if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers released him. The Buccaneers released Plyburn, but he joined the Kansas City Chiefs and informed LSU that he planned to remain in the NFL.
LSU enters the season after going 7-6 overall and 3-5 in the SEC in 2025, but it opens No. 11 in the AP Top 25 and No. 13 in the AFCA Coaches Poll. A late addition from this group could help a team with higher expectations. The larger risk is that one signing turns an eligibility ruling into a conference fight over whether that player can appear in SEC games or pursue a league championship.
Clemson would be LSU’s first chance to use an added player. The first SEC game comes Saturday, Sept. 19, at Ole Miss.
What Most People Are Missing
Expulsion makes the loudest headline. Championship access gives SEC leaders a more immediate way to pressure LSU.
The SEC’s 48-page bylaws do not lay out an expulsion procedure. But Section 4.1.2 authorizes conference chancellors and presidents to bar a member from championship competition and impose other penalties they consider appropriate. That gives the league a disciplinary option short of removing LSU altogether.
The question beneath the roster debate is who controls what. The Louisiana court order concerns eligibility enforcement against athletes. The SEC could argue that it still can discipline LSU as a member institution for using players the conference says violate its rules.
The conference already has declined to enforce its rule restricting transfers between SEC teams to the portal window. Its former-professional-player ban presents a different test: LSU could draw from a group unavailable to its rivals under the conference’s ordinary rules.
A federal challenge would add another layer. Every SEC public university except Vanderbilt has Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity, a protection the presidents considering litigation would have to navigate.
There is a recent conference-law comparison. In June, the Big 12 sued Texas Tech in federal court to prevent the school from playing quarterback Brendan Sorsby after he admitted wagering on games at Cincinnati. The Big 12 sought an injunction and cited its bylaws, First Amendment rights and the dormant Commerce Clause. Texas Tech later separated from Sorsby, who is awaiting the 2027 NFL Draft.
That case does not settle LSU’s dispute. It does show a conference taking a fight over a member school and player eligibility into federal court rather than leaving it inside the usual eligibility process.
The Pate State Read
The player angle may stay smaller than the governance fight. LSU has not identified a former professional it intends to sign, and Plyburn’s choice shows that players with NFL options may not return to college.
But LSU does not need to sign several players to force the issue. One addition could test whether the SEC can keep that player out of league competition, challenge the order in federal court or use its bylaws against LSU’s championship eligibility.
LSU faces pressure from both directions. Following the order could invite conference discipline; refusing to follow it could create trouble in Louisiana court. The decision that matters first is simple: whether LSU adds a player covered by the ruling.
What to Watch Next
Watch LSU’s roster transactions for the first announced addition who has signed a professional contract or played in an NFL preseason game. Watch the SEC for a formal presidents’ action, penalty notice or federal filing rather than another discussion of possible responses.
Then watch LSU’s roster for Clemson on Saturday, Sept. 5, and the conference’s position before the Sept. 19 game at Ole Miss. Any distinction between nonconference participation and SEC or championship eligibility would put the dispute on the field.
Another SEC source put the institutional threat plainly: “There are plenty of other schools that would take [LSU’s] place.”
