Nico Iamaleava out for UCLA vs. Ohio State because

All those hits finally caught up with Nico Iamaleava.

After absorbing one punishing blow after another, the UCLA quarterback will miss Saturday’s recreation against top-ranked Ohio State at Ohio Stadium because of concussion symptoms associated to hits he sustained last weekend against Nebraska, a particular person with information of the state of affairs not approved to converse publicly said.

Iamaleava was taking part in the early portion of follow Tuesday, the last session noticed by reporters this week.

His absence against the Buckeyes presumably means that top backup Luke Duncan, a redshirt sophomore who has never thrown a move at the faculty degree, will make his first profession start.

Iamaleava’s potential to take hits and keep on enjoying had been a major subject of dialogue early this week between reporters and UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper. The quarterback was simply his staff’s main rusher, his average of 52.7 yards per recreation practically doubling the output of operating back Jaivian Thomas (30.8), the staff’s second-leading rusher.

Skipper had praised Iamaleava’s fearlessness, saying the 6-foot-6, 215-pound redshirt sophomore didn’t need to slide or run out of bounds.

“Nico’s the first like tall, skinny dude that I know that will lower the pads on you and is not afraid, he’s going to always be going forward and getting yards and things like that,” Skipper said Monday. “He’s got little legs and skinny arms but has no fear at all.”

Skipper also acknowledged the need to protect Iamaleava’s availability by stopping him from taking more hits than vital.

“Obviously, he’s your starting quarterback,” Skipper said. “You don’t want him taking big hits and things like that, but if they’re going to give him running lanes, you might as well take them. I kid with him all the time, ‘Hey every now and then, you might want to slide a little bit.’ But you know, when you have a natural runner like he is, you kind of just let them go do their thing.”

Immediately after UCLA’s 28-21 loss to Nebraska, Iamaleava didn’t point out that all the hits he had taken impacted his efficiency. He accomplished 17 of 25 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns without an interception while also operating 15 instances for 86 yards.

“Yeah man, shoot, I’ve played football a long time and I’ve gotten hit a lot of times in many games,” Iamaleava said. “So, I don’t think it affected me in that way. Overall, we just gotta play better as a whole and finish games.”