Following a 13-38 victory over Michigan State, the UCLA Bruins and Nico Iamaleava continued their unbeaten start to live under interim head coach Tim Skipper, who took over for former head coach DeShaun Foster following his 0-2 start to the season.
Foster, in his second year as the Bruins’ coach, went 5-10 during his short tenure and started the season with a 43-10 loss to Utah at home, followed by back-to-back losses to Mountain West teams.
‘I Love Coach Skip.’ Nico Iamaleava Reveals How He Feels About Tim Skipper’s UCLA HC Future.
After throwing for 180 yards and 3 touchdowns against the Spartans, UCLA quarterbacks, who joined the Bruins at the start of the season from Tennessee, spoke to the media, crediting their interim head coach following their team’s second win in a row.
“Yes, sir. Coach Skip is a great guy to have in the building. He brings great energy, man, and he’s somebody you wanna play for. I love coach Skip.” Iamaleava shared if he believed the current interim head coach was building enough of a resume to keep his job.
Nico Iamaleava on interim HC Tim Skipper’s building a resume to hang on to his job:
“Yes, sir. Coach Skip is a great guy to have in the building. He brings great energy, man, and he’s somebody you wanna play for. I love coach Skip.”
— Ira Gorawara (@IraGorawara) October 11, 2025
Last week, Iamaleava, who was ranked as the 22nd best overall quarterback according to Pro Football Network’s QB impact metrics, helped Skipper lead the winless UCLA team to a shocking victory against a 2024 playoff team in Penn State.
“I was preaching to the guys, if you don’t want to be here, you can leave. I was basically telling the guys, whoever still believes that we are still in this and that we have games ahead of us that we can go win, then let’s roll,” the UCLA quarterback explained.
After having the best game of his career against Penn, rushing for 128 yards and three touchdowns, and also throwing for 166 yards, Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wolken questioned how Skipper turned UCLA and Iamleava around in such a short amount of time.
“So what exactly was DeShaun Foster doing? Did they just not practice or something? This is about as wild a turnaround after firing a coach as I’ve ever seen.” Wolken questioned.
So what exactly was DeShaun Foster doing? Did they just not practice or something? This is about as wild of a turnaround after firing a coach as I’ve ever seen.
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) October 11, 2025
One factor that many have considered is the change in coordinator for the Bruins. Jerry Neuheisel was promoted to UCLA’s active offensive coordinator following Sunseri’s departure just days before the game against Penn.
Despite the impressive turnaround under his coaching, speaking to the media following the victory over the Nittany Lions, Skipper shared that he isn’t thinking about the potential of a head coach gig right now.
“I’ll be honest with you, I have not thought about that one ounce. So much stuff I have to do here, I mean, to think about the future, I’m not that guy. I’m not a dwell-on-the-past or dream-about-the-future kind of guy. Wherever my feet, that’s where I’m gon’ be.”
Going into today’s game against the Spartans, UCLA was projected to have 2 wins for the season according to Pro Football Network’s Playoff Meter, with games against Maryland and Washington coming up for the chance to exceed expectations.