UCLA’s football team held its fall training camp in Costa Mesa, California for two weeks to begin the season. The time away provided benefits including team bonding and focus, according to head coach DeShaun Foster. Star transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava said the experience was important for his transition.
“That fall camp was huge for me,” Iamaleava said during an interview with Ashley Adamson and Yogi Roth on the B1G Network’s coverage of UCLA’s training camp. “It definitely helped my comfort level in the offense and just taking more control of the offense. Yeah, that fall camp was a really big thing for me.”
Foster noted Iamaleava’s leadership as something that stood out during camp, comparing it to his former Carolina Panthers teammate Julius Peppers.
“He’s just a leader,” Foster said to Adamson and Roth. “I’ve been around Julius Peppers, and he’s 6-7, but you can tell he might not want to be that size. But he just has a personality and people just gravitate to him and Nico is the same way. (…) He just gets his team ready to go. You can see he’s inserting his leadership each day. That last practice, he was chirping up the defense a little bit. It was fun just to see his personality come out. He’s a competitor and I just can’t wait to see him in live action.”
Iamaleava is expected to start against Utah on Aug. 30 as UCLA enters its second season under Foster in the Big Ten Conference.
