Nico x Kwazi "Summer MADNESS": Why UCLA's Duo is the 1.01 of CFF Stack Combos in 2025
And by 1.01 of CFF stack combos, I mean they probably have the coolest first and/or last names of any pairing in the year 2025. Though they could turn out to be an underrated duo for CFF too...
You think Michael trained in the pool? No, I don’t think so. And stop looking at my lemonade!
- LeBron, athlete
From the moment that UCLA’s rising sophomore Kwazi Gilmer announced his commitment to the Bruins a few summers ago, I knew immediately that he would be featured one day in a VP article.
During the summer of 2023, the 6-foot-2 receiver from LA released a commitment video parodying the iconic LeBron James “training in the pool” commercial from the mid-2000s.
Personally, I’m of the mind that this is the greatest commercial of all time, and if you don’t agree, feel free to make your way over to the exit door (and good riddance to you).
Yours truly also parodied this commercial last fall—though you would’ve had to have been following me on Twitter/X to have witnessed that version (in case you haven’t yet).
I figured there’d be a long wait before writing about Gilmer when former App State receiver Kaedin Robinson announced his transfer to LA (following his former QB Joey Aguilar) this offseason. That sentiment changed abruptly when the NCAA released a decision to rule Robinson ineligible in late February (a week or so after yours truly drafted him in a bestball—great timing).
And as if this series of dominoes wasn’t enough to keep up with, UCLA then engaged in CFB’s first ever QB trade, sending the aforementioned Aguilar—who was tossed to the side like a $5 hooker—to Tennessee in favour of the former five star from SoCal: Nico Iamaleava. Though if Aguilar does anything close to resembling the last ‘Hooker’ Tennessee had at QB I think Vol faithful will be satisfied with the deal.
Iamaleava was a disappointment last fall at Tennessee, but it was also his first year starting and only his second year in CFB. Part of the ‘disappointment’ is derived from the fact that he was reportedly being paid eight million dollars for the duration of his tenure in Knoxville.
The good news is that UCLA’s new OC, Tino Sunseri, not only has the name of a rotational extra on the HBO show “The Sopranos” but also comes from a system under Curt Cignetti that has been very kind to both the QB and WR positions. Sunseri served as the QBs coach at IU last year, and before that, he occupied the same role at James Madison. Looking through the rolodex of his former protégés, this guy has been hitting nothing but net for nearly half a decade now.
Going back to where it all started (Sunseri’s first stint as an on-field coach), Sunseri mentored JMU QB Cole Johnson in 2021 to a peachy 47 total TD campaign.
He followed it up with stellar work on a reclamation project in Todd “Toddy TD” Centaio, who was a career dud up until that 2022 season. Then, in 2023, JMU’s QB was Jordan McCloud, who had a monster season for the purple and white. And of course, this past season, Kurtis Rourke led IU to the CFP and had himself a good year as a former MAC player in the B1G (a pretty big jump in competition and not one to take lightly).
Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, there were notable WR campaigns along the way each season during that duration too (we’ll get into this momentarily).
Coaching & System
PPG AVERAGE: QB — HC/OC: 18.0/22.0 /// WR — HC/OC: 6.11/13.1
Deshaun Foster is the current UCLA head coach. He had previously been the RBs coach for the Bruins for several seasons dating back to the 2010s. Unfortunately, like Sunseri, last season was his first as an official play caller, so there will only be one season of data in the tables below to observe.
With Sunseri, we at least have the benefit of knowing that he was involved in the development of the QBs at IU and JMU as the QBs coach, so we can reasonably infer that he will bring some of that magic over to UCLA. I’m also not really intrigued by Foster as a coach as it relates to today’s topic, and so I’m mostly going to focus on Sunseri for this section.
Sunseri began his coaching career in the south east, spending time as an analyst for Florida State, Tennessee and then Alabama. In 2021, he accepted the QBs job under then-JMU head coach Curt Cignetti. Mind you, this was when the Dukes still played in the FCS. Not one but two receivers finished with over 1000 yards (Antwane Wells Jr. on the boundary, Kris Thornton in the slot). Wells finished as the team’s leading receiver with 83 receptions, 1250 yards and 15 scores. Thornton had the exact same number of receptions, but only 1097 yards and 13 scores.
In 2022, JMU elevated a level but didn’t skip a beat. The QB play was still very good, and slot receiver Thornton followed up his stellar 2021 campaign with another 1000 yard output (1015 yards and seven scores on 59 receptions).
The following year saw another JMU duo hit 1000+ yards. FCS transfer Elijah Sarratt (coincidentally one of the first-ever players I wrote about) finished the year with 82 receptions, 1191 yards and eight scores. The other receiver, Reggie Brown, finished with 53 catches, 1054 yards and nine scores.
As you may recall, the JMU regime moved to Indiana in the 2024 offseason. With the Hoosiers, QB Kurtis Rourke had himself a good campaign, but the streak of 1000+ yard receivers unfortunately ended. Though a JMU transfer, who was playing at his third level of CFB in as many years, did come close with 957 yards in 13 games.
We’ve already touched on the list of QBs under Sunseri during his time at IU and JMU. Kurtis Rourke overperformed based on expectations last year, averaging over 22 PPG. Most of the QBs at JMU during Sunseri’s tenure averaged closer to 27-30 PPG.
While Sunseri has only one year of experience at the P4 level (a season that saw his worst QB1 PPG average yet), it’s reasonable to suggest that he hasn’t had a QB talent like the one he just inherited in LA.
For those in need of a refresher, Nico Iamaleava was a five-star rated QB and top-10 rated prospect nationally. He demonstrated the ability to run and pass at Tennessee last season, which will be important because the best QBs under Sunseri/Cignetti were all runners. In fact, while at JMU, the QB led the team in rushing two out of three seasons (the other one was second), and those QBs scored six, seven, and eight rushing TDs in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
That’s what primarily limited Rourke last year—the lack of rushing production to go along with his passing.
What’ll be interesting to monitor is which offensive philosophy wins out with regard to the play calling split. Foster’s Bruins averaged 54% pass plays in 2024, while Sunseri’s Hoosiers averaged 58% run plays.
On the surface, you would think Sunseri’s system would be problematic for potential QB/WR assets, but from what I can tell, the play calling splits at JMU fluctuated between run-heavy and balanced. For example, the 2023 JMU team averaged a 49/51 split of pass to run.
Despite the pass-first tendency, Foster’s Bruins were one of the slowest teams in CFB last season, averaging 61 plays per game. IU was closer to the FBS average with 65 plays per game.
My assumption is that UCLA’s 2025 offence is going to resemble more of what Sunseri wants to do.
UCLA Duo — KWAZI & NICO
It doesn’t necessarily have to be Nico and Kwazi as the stack duo that potentially pops off, I’ve just chosen these two for now because Kwazi stands out as a rising sophomore who was productive as a freshman. Slot receiver Mikey Matthews is another hat in the ring. And I wouldn’t forget about Titus Mokiao-Atimalala, who henceforth I’m going to refer to as ‘TMA’.
Here’s an update from UCLA’s final spring practice in mid-April:
When we saw the receivers in drills (up close), Kwazi Gilmer and Mikey Matthews were quite energetic. Both jumped off the line and ran solid routes, which were capped off by fundamentally sound catches.
But it was Ezavier Staples that had the highlight catches. At one point, he cut to the sideline, misread the catch, but was able to trap the ball between his right hand and his right thigh, picked it up to his chest and ran down the sideline. Two reps later, he had a 10-yard comeback route, slipped, but quickly recovered as he stood straight up and stretch out both of his hands to grab the ball out of the air.
There isn’t any mention of TMA because he was injured during that practice. However, he seems to have locked down a starting spot according to earlier reports:
The early top receivers appear to be Kwazi Gilmer, Mikey Matthews, and Titus Mokiao-Atimalala,
Regarding Nico, the system he just played in at Tennessee vs. the system he inherits at UCLA will be different. Heupel’s offence is a very specific one from a scheme perspective. The receivers don’t even run full route trees, and have to answer for this when they interview for the NFL draft.
The Cignetti-Sunseri system is more prototypical, which may or may not be a good thing for Nico. We’ve only seen him in one season and in one offense, so it’s hard to say what his ceiling is with a QB whisperer in his ear. In fact, dare I say… this could be an upgraded landing spot for him?
It would have definitely been an upgrade had UCLA still been in the PAC12. The B1G schedule will be easier than the SEC one, but not to the extent it could have been in UCLA’s previous conference.
Nonetheless, Tino Sunseri’s presence looms large in my mind. SEC teams have largely figured out Heupel’s scheme, so that system has pretty much died on the vine if you ask me. At least at UCLA we’re starting fresh and can see what Nico can really do. I’m tentatively optimistic.
Speaking of strength of schedule, the Bruins open the year against former PAC12 foe Utah, and then embark on a stretch of UNLV, New Mexico, Northwestern, before getting PSU at home. PSU will be tough, but the other four games mentioned should be OK. Utah is typically a stingy defence under coach Whittingham, but being the first game of the year and a whole new offence, I’d imagine the Bruins will have the opportunity to utilize the element of surprise.
After PSU is Michigan State, followed by Maryland and Indiana. UCLA has its second BYE of the season and then caps 2025 off with Nebraska, OSU, Washington and USC. The final stretch will be tough, but I can see UW and USC being high scoring affairs (usually a good bet when Lincoln Riley is involved).
Closing
When you look at Nico last year, he scored 27 points vs. NC State and Chattanooga, and 30 points against UTEP. His worst games were UGA, UF and Arkansas, where he scored less than 10 points each. So he was very much a volatile player who did well against weaker opponents, and not so well against better opponents. That tends to happen with most but with Nico the gap in performance was quite large.
Like I said, if UCLA were still in the PAC12 this move would be great for camp Iamaleava. Though the B1G schedule could certainly be worse. There are plenty of opportunities to feast on lesser foes on UCLA’s 2025 slate; and I wouldn’t put it past Nico to at least be a candidate for this year’s Mr. September award (UCLA gets UNLV, NM and NW). Those three games in particular could be really nice.
And of course, if Nico is throwing tuddies then somebody is catching them. Sunseri comes from a system that has a long lineage of featuring one or two WRs heavily each season. Gilmer sort of fits the Antwane Wells role, whereas Matthews is the slot guy like Kris Thornton. Keep in mind that Elijah Sarratt was deployed in IU/JMU’s slot role despite being 6’1 inches tall, so all bets are off as to whose going to play where at the moment.
The trend in ADP for Nico suggests that I may be in the minority with viewing his latest move as an upgrade within the CFF context. His April ADP according to Campus2Canton is 196, while is overall ADP is 166. Gilmer has an overall ADP of 355, but no April ADP, suggesting that he was drafted by somebody at some point, just not in April.
I like the opportunity that presents itself here. Maybe I’m relying too much on Sunseri’s experience in Cig’s system (and perhaps giving him a little too much credit in projecting forward), but I am interested in what happens at UCLA in 2025. ◾
If you enjoyed this content and would like to read more, I recommend joining the Pigpen, a community of thousands of degenerate college football fans: