UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava says hes sold on coach Bob Chesney

After a frustrating first season at UCLA, Nico Iamaleava had a decision to make.Did the star quarterback want to go to the NFL? Find another school? Return for another year as a Bruin even though the team was in the midst of a coaching switch?One encounter with coach Bob Chesney removed any doubt.“The first time after I met Coach Chesney, you know,” Iamaleava said after practice Saturday, “I was pretty sold on staying here.”What was it about Chesney that sold him?“I thought just his energy, man,” Iamaleava said.“He was a great human being, you know, high-energy and just very charismatic where I didn’t really sense any fakeness from him.”A new coach accompanied a fresh situation for his quarterback.

Unlike a year ago, when Iamaleava became the story of college football amid his abrupt spring departure from Tennessee, he’s now fully settled in at UCLA.He’ll be able to follow a full spring with a fall training camp that doesn’t feel like it’s stuck on fast forward, not to mention a season without the upheaval of a coaching change.“A lot of our conversations are about that, like, ‘Hey, this is different this time around,’ ” Chesney said.What’s impressed Chesney most about the redshirt junior quarterback is his prioritizing everybody else on the field.California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!“He does such a good job of communicating, getting everybody on the same page, doing it with urgency,” Chesney said, “and then just relentlessly pursuing it.”Chesney labeled Iamaleava as the player who spends the most time in meeting rooms, studying film and working on his leadership skills.Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that Iamaleava received the most votes when ...