The season certainly took a twist on Monday for the UCLA Bruins, as it was reported that UCLA’s starting quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, will miss the remainder of the 2026 season with a leg injury.
Iamaleava suffered the injury late in the first half of UCLA’s 17-15 win over Oregon. Iamaleava would briefly return before halftime but UCLA turned to Ty Dieffenbach in the second half, with the Bruins realizing that Iamaleava’s injury was far more serious than initially thought.
Where does this leave UCLA? The Bruins looked poised to make a College Football Playoff run but with such a giant question mark at quarterback, things are a lot less clear. UCLA could give Dieffenbach the reins or even mix in Madden Iamaleava but either quarterback is an unproven
commodity in the Big Ten.
To make matters worse, on the play where Iamaleava was injured, it appeared that an Oregon defender swung on Iamaleava after the UCLA quarterback was already tackled to the ground. The defender was likely trying to force a fumble but his plans failed horribly, slugging Iamaleava in the helmet.
Both Dan Lanning and Bob Chesney spoke about the alleged punch by the Ducks’ Bear Alexander.
"I was talking to Nico, he's like, 'They keep punching me in the face.' ... I didn't see it," Chesney said. “But when you see it, it's certainly egregious. It shouldn't be a play that's allowed to occur in this sport and it's a shame that it was missed."
Here's the play that knocked out UCLA QB Nico Iamaleava for the rest of the year with a knee injury. pic.twitter.com/pHKvM79U1n
— Underdog CFB (@UnderdogCFB) October 12, 2026
Unsurprisingly, Lanning viewed the play differently.
“You never want to see a player get injured. I think Bear was trying to take a ball shot,” Lanning said. “Obviously it’s late, right? It’s not the way it needs to be done. It wasn’t executed the right way. Bear knows that and I think he feels bad about that.”
While it was a bad look for the Oregon defender to connect a punch on Iamaleava, that punch did not cause Iamaleava’s season-ending injury, it was just an unfortunate situation for Iamaleava to get slugged in the face while suffering a serious leg injury.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Nico Iamaleava took a punch from an Oregon defender in Week 6
