All these hits lastly caught up with Nico Iamaleava.
After absorbing one punishing blow after one other, the UCLA quarterback will miss Saturday’s recreation towards top-ranked Ohio State at Ohio Stadium due to concussion signs associated to hits he sustained final weekend towards Nebraska, an individual with data of the state of affairs not licensed to talk publicly mentioned.
Iamaleava was collaborating within the early portion of follow Tuesday, the final session noticed by reporters this week.
His absence towards the Buckeyes presumably signifies that high backup Luke Duncan, a redshirt sophomore who has by no means thrown a go on the faculty stage, will make his first profession begin.
Iamaleava’s potential to take hits and carry on taking part in had been a serious subject of debate early this week between reporters and UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper. The quarterback was simply his group’s main rusher, his common of 52.7 yards per recreation practically doubling the output of working again Jaivian Thomas (30.8), the group’s second-leading rusher.
Skipper had praised Iamaleava’s fearlessness, saying the 6-foot-6, 215-pound redshirt sophomore didn’t need to slide or run out of bounds.
“Nico’s the first like tall, skinny dude that I know that will lower the pads on you and is not afraid, he’s going to always be going forward and getting yards and things like that,” Skipper mentioned Monday. “He’s got little legs and skinny arms but has no fear at all.”
Skipper additionally acknowledged the necessity to protect Iamaleava’s availability by stopping him from taking extra hits than mandatory.
“Obviously, he’s your starting quarterback,” Skipper mentioned. “You don’t want him taking big hits and things like that, but if they’re going to give him running lanes, you might as well take them. I kid with him all the time, ‘Hey every now and then, you might want to slide a little bit.’ But you know, when you have a natural runner like he is, you kind of just let them go do their thing.”
Instantly after UCLA’s 28-21 loss to Nebraska, Iamaleava didn’t point out that every one the hits he had taken impacted his efficiency. He accomplished 17 of 25 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns with out an interception whereas additionally working 15 occasions for 86 yards.
“Yeah man, shoot, I’ve played football a long time and I’ve gotten hit a lot of times in many games,” Iamaleava mentioned. “So, I don’t think it affected me in that way. Overall, we just gotta play better as a whole and finish games.”
