"He was Prime Cam Newton this whole time": CFB fans dumbfounded over Nico Iamaleava's 294-yard, 5 TD performance in UCLA's win vs. Penn State

College football fans were amazed of the five-touchdown performance of UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava in the Bruins' upset win over No. 7 Penn State on Saturday at Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Iamaleava had 294 total yards — 166 passing yards with two touchdowns and 128 rushng yards and three TDs — to lead UCLA past Penn State and win its first game of the season after starting with four straight losses.

Fans were stunned by his tour de force, leaving one user to compare Iamaleava to Carolina Panthers and Auburn great Cam Newton.

"He was Prime Cam Newton this whole time" the college football fan wrote.

Another fan hoped the young quarterback could turn into former Virginia Tech star Michael Vick to save UCLA's 2025 campaign and end with a winning season.

A football enthusiast also noticed how the UCLA quarterback fit for the new gameplan introduced by new offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel.

One fans even threw in his NFL player comparison to the young signal-caller, liking him to former San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick.

Others gave reference to Iamaleava's former team, the Tennessee Volunteers.

Nico Iamaleava and UCLA were aggressive from the start, grabbing a 27-7 lead at the half and weathered Penn State's second-half scoring blitz to give Penn State, who fell to Oregon last week, another heartbreaking defeat to drop to 3-2 (0-2 in Big Ten).

About the author

Geoffrey Latayan is a journalist who covers college basketball at Sportskeeda. An AB Communication graduate from De La Salle Lipa, he is an avid sports fan who follows college basketball, MLB, NBA and pro wrestling.

As a writer, he's adept at stats and previously covered college sports in the Philippines. Geoff has interviewed former NBA star Detlef Schrempf, although it was way before the "sportsblog" era.

Geoff believes the gap between College sports and major leagues has narrowed thanks to the new stars of the sport, who can give the pro leagues a run for their money.

His favorite college players of all time are Michael Jordan and Allan Iverson. In fact, the Jordan admiration extended to North Carolina becoming his favorite college team as well. Geoff rates Carmelo Anthony winning the national title for Syracuse as his favorite College Sports moment and he is also a die-hard Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia 76ers fan.

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Edited by Geoff