By far the biggest story in college football over the past week has been now-former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava. After holding out of the Volunteers’ spring practices for more NIL money, Iamaleava was booted from the team, and is now in the transfer portal in search of a new home.
Given that Iamaleava is originally from Southern California, there have naturally been rumors connecting him to USC. However, the Trojans would be wise to stay far away from the quarterback.
It’s not as though Iamaleava lit the world on fire last season. As a redshirt freshman, he threw for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns, and five interceptions—fairly average numbers. Of those 19 touchdowns, seven came against either UT Chattanooga or UTEP.
Further, the way that Iamaleave left Tennessee—refusing to show up to practice unless he received a bigger NIL deal—definitely raised some red flags. While much of his decision was reportedly due to bad advice from his father, that is not the exactly the type of behavior that you want to see from the leader of your locker room.
Iamaleava has a ton of raw talent—as evidenced by the fact that he was a five-star recruit out of high school two years ago. But any potential talent gap between him and USC’s current QB room of Jayden Maiava, Sam Huard, and Husan Longstreet is nowhere near enough to make up for the potential locker room issues that bringing him in could cause.
To date, all reports have been that the Trojans do not have interest in Iamaleava. USC fans should be happy about that, and hope that Lincoln Riley holds his ground on the subject.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC should view Nico Iamaleava as an unwelcome soap opera
By far the biggest story in college football over the past week has been now-former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava. After holding out of the Volunteers’ spring practices for more NIL money, Iamaleava was booted from the team, and is now in the transfer portal in search of a new home.
Given that Iamaleava is originally from Southern California, there have naturally been rumors connecting him to USC. However, the Trojans would be wise to stay far away from the quarterback.
It’s not as though Iamaleava lit the world on fire last season. As a redshirt freshman, he threw for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns, and five interceptions—fairly average numbers. Of those 19 touchdowns, seven came against either UT Chattanooga or UTEP.
Further, the way that Iamaleave left Tennessee—refusing to show up to practice unless he received a bigger NIL deal—definitely raised some red flags. While much of his decision was reportedly due to bad advice from his father, that is not the exactly the type of behavior that you want to see from the leader of your locker room.
Iamaleava has a ton of raw talent—as evidenced by the fact that he was a five-star recruit out of high school two years ago. But any potential talent gap between him and USC’s current QB room of Jayden Maiava, Sam Huard, and Husan Longstreet is nowhere near enough to make up for the potential locker room issues that bringing him in could cause.
To date, all reports have been that the Trojans do not have interest in Iamaleava. USC fans should be happy about that, and hope that Lincoln Riley holds his ground on the subject.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC should view Nico Iamaleava as an unwelcome soap opera
