Not long after UCLA head coach Bob Chesney spoke out against Bear Alexander's actions in Saturday's game, Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning commented on the incident for the first time on Monday night and made Alexander's intentions clear.
"Based on how I saw it — and I feel horrible for the other team; you never want to see a player get injured," Lanning said. "I think Bear was trying to take a ball shot. We were pretty aggressive about when the quarterback is running, and there's opportunities to get the ball loose."
Late in the first half, Iamaleava carried the ball for a short gain and was tackled by Oregon linebacker Jerry Mixon and defensive lineman Bear Alexander. As Iamaleava went to the ground, Mixon fell on his legs and seemingly injured Iamaleava's right knee.
After Iamaleava was tackled, Alexander swung his right arm and punched Iamaleava in the helmet. Chesney called the punch "egregious" when asked about the play on Monday. Iamaleava is expected to miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.
"Obviously it's late, and it's not the way it needs to be done," Lanning continued. "It wasn't executed the right way, and Bear knows that. I think he feels bad about that. It's one of the first things he said to me; he goes, 'I wasn't trying to hurt the guy.' And I don't think that's how he got hurt; I think it was a lower extremity. You don't want to see it play out like that, but you want your players to be aggressive and try to punch the ball out.
UCLA head coach Bob Chesney says Oregon DL Bear Alexander's punch of QB Nico Iamaleava "egregious."
— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos) October 12, 2026
Continued that "it's a shame that it was missed." pic.twitter.com/BBqyOLtp7D
Following Oregon's win over USC, in which quarterback Dante Moore took a vicious hit from USC's Desman Stephens II, Lanning said he believed the Ducks know better than to play like that. USC suspended Stephens, and some fans on social media called for Oregon to suspend Alexander for a similar unnecessary action. However, since Lanning did not feel Alexander's incident was intentional, he won't be facing any internal discipline.
"Our guys respect the game," Lanning said after beating USC. "I don't think you'd ever see that from our players. I don't think you'd ever see that from our coaches."
The Big Ten has not made a stance on the play, so as of Monday night, Alexander should be available for the Ducks against Nebraska on Saturday night against Nebraska.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Bear Alexander won't face discipline for incident vs. UCLA per Lanning