total touchdown

UCLA senior starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava will miss the rest of this season with a knee injury, according to a person with knowledge of the injury not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The injury is a blow for the No. 12 Bruins, who are 5-0 during coach Bob Chesney’s first season and have a favorable path to a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Iamaleava sustained the injury at the end of the first half of UCLA’s win over Oregon.

The quarterback was running with the ball when he was spun around and was tackled. He grabbed his leg as he was hit in the head by Oregon’s Bear Alexander. Iamaleava briefly returned for one play and Chesney said during a halftime TV interview the quarterback was fine after getting hit in the quad.

Iamaleava, however, did not return with the team after halftime and eventually emerged from the locker room in the third quarter wearing street clothes.

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava is examined by medical staff while coach Bob Chesney watches Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

(Lydia Ely / Associated Press)

Before his exit, Iamaleava went 10 of 17 passing for 162 yards and two interceptions. Through five games, the quarterback tallied 982 passing yards, 144 rushing yards, five total touchdowns and four interceptions.

After Saturday’s win, Chesney said that he thought Iamaleava injured his thigh, but he noted the injury may have been more extensive and it would require a full medical evaluation.

Senior quarterback Ty Dieffenbach, who had been listed third on the depth chart behind Iamaleava and his younger brother Madden, ran the UCLA offense during the second half. He completed three passes for 43 yards and one touchdown, helping the Bruins earn a 17-15 win.

“When someone goes down, and someone’s gotta step up, you’re either exposed or you’re revealed,” Chesney said. “One of the two is going to happen when your number gets called, and for Ty to step up in that moment when Nico couldn’t go and to put himself in the spot where he was revealed for knowing the run game, knowing what to get us into, the touchdown pass I thought he threw.”

Madden Iamaleava appeared in two games this season, taking over the offense against Purdue when his older brother went down with a shoulder injury and against Maryland with UCLA up multiple scores.

Chesney turned to Dieffenbach, who started last season at Cal Poly, during one of the biggest moments of the season. Dieffenbach said after the win he didn’t know he would be asked to lead the offense if Nico Iamaleava was knocked out.

UCLA quarterback Ty Dieffenbach prepares to receive the ball during a win over Oregon Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

(Lydia Ely / Associated Press)

The decision to play Dieffenbach instead of Madden was based on the game script and the threat of Dieffenbach in the ground game, Chesney said.

“We are really on a week-to-week basis here, and this week we felt like we had to run a little bit more with the quarterback possibly, and that’s where I felt Ty had a really nice week and that put us in that spot,” Chesney said. “This is just one of those things that I’m sure if Madden would’ve went in there, he would have done a phenomenal job as well. But I thought Ty was the guy we decided on at this moment based on the previous week of practice.”

Chesney and Dieffebach acknowledged that the fight for the UCLA backup spot never ends.

“Every week is a battle between me and Madden for the two-spot, and I mean both of us were executing in practice,” Dieffenbach said. “… When I heard that I was [going to play, it was] just tunnel vision, just ready to go execute.”

Prior to helping earn UCLA’s first victory at Autzen Stadium since 2004, Dieffenbach spent the 2025 campaign at Cal Poly, where he started 11 games, throwing for 1,305 yards, nine touchdowns and nine interceptions, alongside 321 ground yards and four scores.

Dieffenbach’s one-year stint in San Luis Obispo was preceded by two years at Pittsburgh, where he did not see any game action. The signal caller’s transfer to UCLA marked a return to Southern California for the Agoura High product, who started his high school career as a wide receiver but finished his three varsity seasons with 4,153 passing yards and 48 touchdowns.

When No. 21 UCLA football faces off against No. 13 Oregon on Saturday afternoon at Autzen Stadium, defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler wants the Bruins to toe the line between playing with emotion and playing emotional.

“Big-time environments tend to bring a little extra out of your guys, and when you do a little bit extra, you tend to do too much,” Hitschler said. “Football is a hard game, but you can’t make it harder than it already is. Sometimes when you press, you tend to give up big mistakes. In the Purdue game, looking back, we definitely pressed a little bit too hard and got a little emotional. … Got to play with emotions, but we can’t play emotional. We’re in a good spot of growing and understanding that. But this is a new atmosphere, a new environment.”

Aside from the national rankings, the long history between these former Pac-12 rivals and both teams’ chances to contend for the College Football Playoff, the memory of Oregon knocking James Madison out of the Dukes’ first playoff appearance last December remains fresh for many of their players and assistants who followed coach Bob Chesney to the Bruins.

And the 51 points and 514 total yards the Ducks garnered against Hitschler’s defense left a chip on his shoulder.

UCLA safety Malik Hartford trips Purdue receiver Asaad Waseem at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 19.

(Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)

“We’re going to continue to be aggressive and continue to find a way to create opportunities for our offense to get the ball in a positive field position,” Hitschler said. “But we got to be on top of our game because they will make you pay no matter who it is at quarterback. They are going to make you pay for your mistakes, and they’re going to find a way to create the explosives they always have, and we got to limit them.”

Although Oregon quarterback Dante Moore — who tallied 313 passing yards and five total touchdowns against Hitschler‘s defense in the playoff — was ruled out for Saturday because of a head injury suffered against USC on Sep. 26, the Ducks’ Dylan Raiola is not a typical backup.

He threw for 4,819 yards and 31 touchdowns in two years as Nebraska’s starter, then went 11 for 11 with three touchdown passes in his Ducks debut before stepping up with 289 yards and two touchdown passes after replacing Moore in a 41-27 win over USC at the Coliseum.

“When you watch him come in and complete that game and do what he did, there’s not a giant drop-off between the two of those guys. They’re both really, really good,” Chesney said. “Dylan obviously had a chance at the end of that USC game to really put himself in position to gain confidence in his teammates and teammates to gain confidence in him, and I thought he was on time. I thought he was accurate. He let those guys compete for footballs, and I’m sure there’s a lot of buy-in in that program right now in him.”

While Raiola is a proven passer, his impact is amplified by the weapons around him. In the backfield, Hitschler touted Dierre Hill Jr. and Jordon Davidson as the best running back duo in the country. While the Bruins have gone toe-to-toe with formidable tailbacks thus far, they have yet to face a one-two punch like Hill and Davidson, which could pose problems for an otherwise staunch run defense.

Raiola’s arsenal includes potent pass catchers, particularly the Ducks’ top two wideouts, Dakorien Moore and Evan Stewart, who have combined for 512 yards and seven touchdowns.

Chesney tabbed Stewart as a matchup “nightmare,” adding that Oregon is going to get him the ball in a multitude of ways by utilizing him in the slot and creating mismatches for Hitschler’s defense. Chesney also said that Dakorien Moore’s extreme speed allows him to take the top off the defense, and that the Ducks will not be afraid to take shots downfield, testing the Bruins’ secondary.

And if the Bruins let emotions get the best of them, like they did against Purdue — when quarterback Ryan Browne threw for 378 yards and two touchdowns — then it may be a long day for Hitschler’s secondary.

The Bruins’ biggest headache could be 6-foot-5 tight end Jamari Johnson, who caught seven passes for 159 yards against USC, particularly with all three of UCLA’s starting cornerbacks shorter than 6 feet.

“The tight end we faced last year, and he’s special. They do a really good job of getting into different personnel packages, and then if you go to a bigger group, they’re going to spread you out. They’re going to try to find a matchup with that tight end,” Chesney said. “He can catch everything in his general vicinity; he’s absolutely phenomenal.”

With an explosive Ducks offense set to perform in the friendly confines of Autzen Stadium, the Bruins trusting the playbook may be most important.

“Football is football no matter where we are,” fifth-year offensive lineman Hall Schmidt said. “We don’t have a magic potion for Oregon, but we definitely have ourselves, and we have the tools that we’re going to use.”