The Nico Iamaleava camp isn’t just bad at negotiating. They also proved with multiple moves on Wednesday that they’re extremely bad at PR, and at this point, any attempt to save face is only going to make things look worse for the former Tennessee Football quarterback.
On Wednesday morning, the signal-caller’s camp issued an official denial publicly that they left the Vols over more money. Front Office Sports quoted a family friend disputing the narrative, and the story says their claim is that they left over the offensive scheme rather than NIL funds.
Former NFL wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who is close with the Nico Iamaleava camp, said as much over the weekend and claimed Tennessee was lying about the situation. Reportedly, it all came down to wanting Josh Heupel to incorporate more pro-style elements into his offense to prepare Iamaleava for the pros.
After all of this officially went public, however, Iamaleava committed to the UCLA Bruins, first reported by Colin Cowherd and later by ON3. Just so we’re clear, UCLA went 5-7 last year under DeShaun Foster, who is in his second year, and has never been an offensive coordinator. Their new OC is Tino Sunseri, who has never been a solo coordinator either.
Sunseri, the son of former UT defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri, was the co-OC of the Indiana Hoosiers last year. However, he didn’t call the plays, and Indiana ran the spread with Curt Cignetti and Mike Shanahan. They don’t have pro-style elements in their offense either.
So Iamaleava left the Vols over a desire to find an offense that better develops him for the NFL and committed to a program led by an OC who runs the spread and has never called an offensive play in his life? Does that make any sense to anybody? Let’s call it what it is: the Iamaleava camp is flat-out lying.
This is a pathetic attempt to save face by a side that massively overplayed its hand. Iamaleava is reportedly taking a pay cut anywhere in the range of $250,000 to $500,000. He’s going to a worse roster, and he’s going to play for a staff that has proven nothing about its ability to develop quarterbacks.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, he’s going to a school that his brother, Madden, flipped his commitment from back in December before signing with the Arkansas Razorbacks. That would suggest there’s already some bad blood there between the sides, so why would he pick that school?
It’s so obvious Nico Iamaleava’s camp was desperate. They overplayed their hand and are trying to cover for that move. Just the idea on its face that they didn’t like the offense at Tennessee which was the reason for their commitment in the first place was ridiculous. Nobody is going to believe this claim now.
