Nico Iamaleava was the biggest story of the college football offseason. However, the new UCLA quarterback does not intimidate UNLV defensive back Aamaris Brown.
He committed a cardinal sin when it comes to media availability in the lead-up to Saturday.
Brown provided the Bruins with bulletin board material. More specifically, he spoon-fed additional outside motivation to the top-ranked player from the college football transfer portal.
Nico Iamaleava started 0-1 at UCLA.
The multi-million dollar signal-caller made the first start of his redshirt sophomore season against Utah. It was not great. Some might say… bad.
Iamaleava completed only 50% of his 22 pass attempts for 136 yards and one touchdown with one interception. UCLA lost its season-opener by 33 points.
To make matters worse, Iamaleava appeared to walk with a limp after the game and wore a brace on his left hand. He is likely going to be just fine but he took a beating.
Nico spotted limping with a brace on his right hand after the game 😬 pic.twitter.com/YOX4VOfZVv
— Barstool UCLA (@StoolWestwood) August 31, 2025
This latest performance comes on the heels of a disastrous showing with Tennessee in the College Football Playoff. Nico Iamaleava struggled in the cold against Ohio State and then he lost to Utah at home after the extremely awkward media circus during the offseason.
UNLV is not scared!
The Rebels are off to a 2-0 start in the first year under head coach Dan Mullen.
They beat two bad teams in Idaho State and Sam Houston State. UCLA will be their first challenge.
However, defensive back Aamaris Brown could not be less intimidated.
The former Kansas State and USF transfer spoke about Nico Iamaleava earlier this week. His assessment was blunt.
“Honestly, nothing really sticks out to me about him [on tape],” Brown said. “You know, in the past there’s been talk about ‘five-star this, five-star that.’ I have been around plenty of five-star and four-star [players], it don’t scare me. I have played competition higher than them, including Alabama and all that […] Going against a guy like Nico, there’s no surprise, no excitement or nothing like that.”
Mic drop.
I love this kind of mentality. Don’t let anyone scare you. Believe fully in yourself.
With that being said, I would personally prefer my players to keep that kind of talk inside the locker room. To put it out in the media like Aamaris Brown adds fuel to UCLA’s fire. Especially Nico Iamaleava.