John: Welcome to the home stretch from the Daily Utah Chronicle.
I’m John Leone, sports editor here at the Chrony.
To start off the 2025 semester, we’ll bring you clear and concise updates on Utah athletics each week.
Today, we’ll take a closer look at the Utah football matchup with UCLA.
Followed by a quick update on women’s soccer and volleyball from my assistant editor, Collyn Cowles.
He does a great job on the staff, and he is updated on all things soccer and volleyball.
So, thanks for joining us, and let’s get into it.
Today is Saturday, Aug. 30.
Utah is traveling to the Rose Bowl to take on UCLA at 8 p.m. Pacific time, 9 p.m. mountain time.
The current spread has UCLA.
As 5.5-point underdogs, Utah’s favored by just under a touchdown, and the current bet is 51% on Utah.
The public is also favoring Utah on the money line, 80% at minus 214, with the over-under being 49.5, 56% of the public bet of which is on the under.
The main storyline for this game is the quarterbacks for both teams.
Both teams are bringing in transfer quarterbacks: Utah, Devon Dampier and UCLA, Niko Iamaleava.
We’ll start with Dampier being the transfer from New Mexico out of the mountain west.
Last season, Dampier had a 59.7% completion percentage and 2,768 passing yards.
To pair with the passing yards, Dampier threw for 12 touchdowns, but struggled with the turnovers as he threw 12 interceptions.
The 50% touchdown to interception ratio isn’t ideal, especially in the Mountain West, but Dampier and Jason Beck, the new offensive coordinator, are working to take care of the football more efficiently.
Dampier is the true definition of a dual-threat quarterback. However, he added 1,166 rushing yards to his tally on the ground.
He also ran for 19 touchdowns, many of which came against big-time opponents.
New Mexico traveled to Auburn and Arizona, which were both away games, giving Dampier his true tests on the road last year in New Mexico.
We’ll get into his stat lines for those later as we move on to UCLA’s quarterback, Nico Iamaleava.
Iamaleava transferred from Tennessee to UCLA this past offseason, with a lot of drama involved, many of which of these storylines came on the NIL department.
Iamaleava was holding out for more money from Tennessee, which didn’t end well for him, as Tennessee basically told him, “pack your bags and go”.
Nico then ended up at UCLA in the spring and decided to call it his home for the 2025 season.
Iamaleava was a five-star recruit out of high school, landed at Tennessee last season, and made the college football playoff with the Volunteers.
Iamaleava had a good season overall, but nothing stellar.
He completed 63.8% of his passes with 2,616 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and 5 interceptions through the air.
He did a great job of taking care of the ball, but didn’t have astounding numbers through the air.
He is able to tuck the ball and run when needed to, with 364 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns, but he’s not the dual threat that you’ll see out of Dampier.
The 6-6 sophomore will undoubtedly be tested in this game as Utah is expected to bring pressure from the defensive end of the ball.
Nico will be working with a new offensive coordinator named Tino Sunseri.
He led Indiana last year, which also made the college football playoffs as offensive coordinator.
Sunseri is highly, highly sought after and expected to be a great offensive coordinator for UCLA.
Nico had some shining moments last year in the SEC, but we’ll see what he can do with the full season under a strong offensive coordinator like Sunseri.
Going through Nico’s game log, he had great performances against Chattanooga, North Carolina State, Mississippi State, UTEP, and Vanderbilt, which, as many college football fans know, aren’t the premier teams on Tennessee’s roster from last season.
When playing against Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and even Oklahoma, Nico had 0 touchdowns against the Buckeyes, 0 touchdowns against Georgia, 1 touchdown and 1 interception against Alabama, 0 touchdowns and an interception against Florida and 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions against Oklahoma.
In each of these games, Nico failed to cross the 200-yard mark through the air as he struggled against good defenses.
Utah’s defense is coming off a great 2024 campaign.
The offense more or less let them out to dry throughout the season, as it seemed like the defense was on the field the entire game.
This year, with a more even offense-to-defense ratio, Utah should be able to give their defense some sort of a break as they return key players like Lander Barton, Smith Snowden, Tao Johnson, and many others.
Look for Nico to get the ball out quick in this game, as he will struggle under pressure and has a hard time running outside of the play design.
Dampier, on the other hand, does his best when improvising.
His 1,166 rushing yards go to show that he can make magic happen outside of the designed play, which is something Utah will rely on heavily.
In this game, expect a decently high-scoring affair with two new offenses all around, new weapons for Utah, new weapons for UCLA, new running backs on both sides.
The main unit that remains the same on either side is Utah’s offensive line.
The O line in Salt Lake City is projected to be top 3 in the nation, returning potential and projected NFL draft picks, Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu at the tackles.
Inside, you have Jaren Kump, Michael MoKofisi.
And these guys will clog up the middle as they work together for the 2nd consecutive season.
The chemistry seems to be there for this core 5, and Utah will rely on them heavily to keep the ball moving.
Overall, I think Utah has the edge in this game.
Tried and tested defense mixed with a new and explosive offense gives them more to look forward to than UCLA does.
While Nico may be a great offensive presence and pocket passer, UCLA struggles when they get outside of their comfort zone, which Utah and defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley seem to do very well.
My prediction for this game is that Utah takes care of business handily, jumping out on top and never letting go of the lead.
I will say Utah wins the game 30 to 13 at the Rose Bowl, picking up their first win in 4 appearances in the stadium.
Obviously, the two Rose Bowl losses being the previous two, and then a loss on the road to UCLA in 2023.
Outside of those games, Utah has performed well with a winning record over the Bruins in the Pac-12.
Moving on to our soccer and volleyball segment, I will pass it on to Collyn, where he will recap the previous games and look forward to what’s to come.
Thank you.
Collyn: Hello everyone.
My name is Collyn Cowles, and I am the assistant sports editor at the Daily Utah Chronicle.
And after John’s incisive football update, I’ll be giving a quick update on the Utes women’s soccer and the volleyball programs.
Starting off with women’s soccer, so far on the season, the Utes are 21 and 1 on the year with getting their first win of the season against the University of Gonzaga in Washington, that was a 1 to 0 win.
And then on the road, they fell 0 to 2 against Utah Valley, but taking the first game of the season at U Field, 4 to 0 against Westminster.
On Thursday, Aug. 28, the Utes traveled to Logan, Utah for an in-state rival match against Utah State.
Both teams drew that game by a score of 1 to 1.
Lilliah Blum scored her second goal of the season, leading the Utes in goals scored so far.
The next game for the Utes will be on August 31st, this upcoming Sunday, against NC State at Ute Field at 7 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, or if you’re looking to watch it online, it’s only streamed on ESPN+.
So far on the season, NC State has 0 wins, 4 losses, and 1 draw.
These two schools have only faced off once in program history, dating back to 2023.
This game was concluded by a scoreline of 1 to 1.
The Utes will be traveling to Seattle after the home game against NC State on September 4th against the University of Washington.
And they will be starting Big 12 conference play on September 19th, on the road against TCU.
From soccer to volleyball, the women’s volleyball program currently sits number 23 in the nation, and number 4th in Big 12 preseason rankings.
In 2024, they went 25 and 6 on the year and 14-4 in conference play.
Giving the Utes their first NCAA tournament since 2021.
After the red and white game on August 23rd, they hosted their first game of the Utah Classic versus Dayton University, who is ranked number 24th in the nation.
The Utes won by a set score of 3 to 1.
And then today, on August 30th, the Utes will be hosting Lafayette College and then Washington State tomorrow on August 31st.
Thank you for listening to the home stretch with the Daily Utah Chronicle.
See you again next week.
Go Utes.
