UCLA Loses Nico Iamaleava to Season Ending Knee Injury

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava is expected to miss the remainder of the 2026 season after suffering a knee injury during the Bruins' 17-15 win over Oregon. The injury occurred when he was tackled in the game.

According to CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz, Iamaleava's knee injury will sideline him for the rest of the season. He completed 62.1 percent of his passes for 982 yards, four touchdowns, and four interceptions before the injury.

Iamaleava left the Oregon game after appearing to land awkwardly between defenders late in the first half. Backup quarterback Ty Dieffenbach replaced him and helped UCLA secure the victory with a fourth-quarter touchdown pass.

A fan reacting to the tackle involving Oregon defensive lineman Bear Alexander wrote, "This is worse than the USC player hit on Dante Moore," according to sports.yahoo.com.

UCLA coach Bob Chesney discussed the team's quarterback situation after the win over Oregon. He said Dieffenbach earned the opportunity after preparing for the role during the previous week.

"We're really on a week to week basis here. This week we felt like we had to run a little bit more with the quarterback possibly. And that's where I thought Ty had a really nice week.

It's just one of those things. I'm sure if Madden had gone in there, he would have done a phenomenal job as well. But Ty was the guy we decided on based on the previous week of practice, and I thought he did a really good job.

But Madden is going to be there the whole way through as well competing and fighting for that position with or without Nico," said Bob Chesney, UCLA head coach.

Chesney also evaluated Dieffenbach's performance after the senior quarterback entered against Oregon. Dieffenbach completed three of six passes for 43 yards and threw a touchdown.

"When someone goes down and someone's got to step up, I say it every single time is that you're either exposed or revealed. One of the two is going to happen when your number gets called. For Ty to step up in that moment when Nico couldn't go. He put himself in a spot where he was revealed for knowing the run game, knowing what to get us into, the touchdown pass," said Bob Chesney, UCLA head coach.

UCLA has not finalized its next starter, with Dieffenbach and Madden Iamaleava among the options. The Bruins are scheduled to face Wisconsin on Oct. 17 in their first game without Nico Iamaleava.