Madden Iamaleava making strides this spring

FAYETTEVILLE — Madden Iamaleava was a late addition to the Arkansas recruiting class in December and this spring he has made a quick rise up the charts.

Bobby Petrino has coached a lot of talented quarterbacks including many who went on to play in the NFL. Petrino recently had special praise for Iamaleava comparing him to a former great at Louisville.

“Yeah, no question about it,” Petrino said. “I think the biggest thing that you have to do on a backup quarterback is really know what they can do. Then you limit what you practice and you just try to get really good at what it is that you’re good at. I thought that was the one thing that I knew last year is what Malachi’s strengths were and what he was really good at what he could excel at and make plays doing. When he came in the game that’s all we

did.

“So right now we’re giving them this whole offense while we’re trying to figure out, ‘OK, this is what KJ is really good at. This is what Madden can do.’   You know Madden’s a special talent now. He can really get the ball out of his hands. He sees stuff and has a great, quick release. I know there’s times he drops back and he doesn’t know what the play is. But somebody pops open and he can stick it and put it right on their hands. The last guy that I coached that did that a lot as a true freshman was Lamar Jackson. You know where you don’t see anything but all of a sudden they throw a post for a touchdown and everyone’s going, ‘Damn, how did he see that?’ That wasn’t even in his progression. Now we do need to get him to know the plays. There’s no question about that. But that ability is something that is hard to coach. And his vision is just something that’s really good.”

At Saturday’s scrimmage, Iamaleava unofficially completed 8 of 12 passes for 126 yards. He also carried three times for 30 yards. Petrino talked about where Iamaleava is in his development.

“Yeah, I would say he’s ahead of a lot of young guys that I have coached,” Petrino said. “He works extremely hard at understanding the offense. He works hard at calling the play in the huddle. He takes a lot of pride in it. He gets mad at himself if he makes an error calling the play, or calling the motion or setting things in. He’s got a lot of internal pride in himself. His natural delivery makes coaching all about the X’s and the O’s. You’re not having to change anything in his footwork or his release. That makes it a lot easier coaching him, I can tell you that, because now it’s all about executing the offense and seeing things and knowing what’s going on. I think he has a chance to be a really special player.”

Iamaleava and KJ Jackson among others are competing for the backup job behind Taylen Green. Petrino feels Green has been good for the backup quarterbacks as well as others on offense.

“Yeah, he’s done a really nice job of leading,” Petrino said. “Part of maturing as a quarterback and leading is communicating with your teammates and motivating your teammates, and not accepting when they don’t do something right. And I try to encourage that, like, ‘Hey, you go tell them what he should have done there and not me’ –– and then they know that he knows what he’s talking about whether they’re short on a route or deep on a route or didn’t break at the right angle. A lot of times our quarterbacks now are going and making that correction to the players, and that means a lot more than just coming from me.”

Iamaleava was a four-star recruit who transferred to Long Beach (Calif.) Poly prior to his senior year. He was ruled ineligible as a senior. Iamaleava was committed to UCLA prior to flipping to the Hogs and signing early.

Named the Gateway League’s Co-Offensive Player of the Year after leading Warren HS to an 11-3 record and CIF-SS Division 3 semifinal appearance as a junior in 2023. Threw for over 3,600 yards and 43 touchdowns against just four interceptions as a junior. Finished sophomore year going 31-of-58 passing (53.4%) for 675 yards with 10 touchdowns and an interception while backing up his brother Nico Lamaleava. Also ran for 62 yards.

Iamaleava and the Razorbacks will play the spring game on Saturday at 1 p.m.