Over the past week, Nico Iamaleava has become a lightning rod, a highly-touted player at a high-profile position at a storied program who has added yet another twist to a rapidly evolving, occasionally unrecognizable college football landscape.
Though he’s been largely silent publicly since he and the Tennessee football program parted ways last Saturday, the former Vols quarterback felt the need to address and dispute at least one of the many things that has been said and reported about him over the past seven days.
Iamaleava took to Instagram Friday to deny a report from CBS college football pundit Josh Pate that he, along with several other Tennessee players, threatened to sit out of the Vols’ College Football Playoff game against Ohio State over NIL disputes.
“Damn I tried to sit out and throw the playoff game too?” Iamaleava wrote in an Instagram story Friday, which includes a picture of him attempting to stiff-arm Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon. “These boys just make me laugh man. Ain’t no way.”
In its first College Football Playoff appearance, Tennessee was blown out 42-17 by the Buckeyes, the eventual national champion. Iamaleava had arguably his worst game of the season, completing only 14 of his 31 passes for a season-low 104 yards.
After Iamaleava missed a practice and did not respond to coaches over an NIL dispute, Tennessee moved on from the former five-star quarterback last Saturday. Iamaleava officially entered the NCAA transfer portal when it opened on Wednesday and has potentially already found a new home, with The Athletic reporting that the California native is expected to transfer to UCLA.
The split between Iamaleava and Tennessee ignited a vast and heated discussion about not only what went down between player and program, but what it signified in the broader world of college sports, which is still only a few years into an era in which players can earn money from their name, image and likeness and transfer schools without penalty.
As part of that larger conversation, Pate said on his show last Sunday that Iamaleava’s standoff with Tennessee this spring wasn’t the first time he had come to the Vols for more money than the $2 million per year he was reportedly already making.
“This stuff was happening last December during the playoffs — with this kid included, but not just this kid — they were trying to get more money from Tennessee and other playoff teams before the playoffs,” Pate said. “They were trying to leverage playoff participation.”
Iamaleava’s denial wasn’t limited to just one post, either. In a subsequent Instagram story, he posted a picture of him and former teammate Navy Shuler talking on the field before the Ohio State game about “how ima throw this game rq (real quick),” along with laughing emojis.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Nico Iamaleava denies threatening to sit out Tennessee playoff game
Over the past week, Nico Iamaleava has become a lightning rod, a highly-touted player at a high-profile position at a storied program who has added yet another twist to a rapidly evolving, occasionally unrecognizable college football landscape.
Though he’s been largely silent publicly since he and the Tennessee football program parted ways last Saturday, the former Vols quarterback felt the need to address and dispute at least one of the many things that has been said and reported about him over the past seven days.
Iamaleava took to Instagram Friday to deny a report from CBS college football pundit Josh Pate that he, along with several other Tennessee players, threatened to sit out of the Vols’ College Football Playoff game against Ohio State over NIL disputes.
“Damn I tried to sit out and throw the playoff game too?” Iamaleava wrote in an Instagram story Friday, which includes a picture of him attempting to stiff-arm Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon. “These boys just make me laugh man. Ain’t no way.”
In its first College Football Playoff appearance, Tennessee was blown out 42-17 by the Buckeyes, the eventual national champion. Iamaleava had arguably his worst game of the season, completing only 14 of his 31 passes for a season-low 104 yards.
After Iamaleava missed a practice and did not respond to coaches over an NIL dispute, Tennessee moved on from the former five-star quarterback last Saturday. Iamaleava officially entered the NCAA transfer portal when it opened on Wednesday and has potentially already found a new home, with The Athletic reporting that the California native is expected to transfer to UCLA.
The split between Iamaleava and Tennessee ignited a vast and heated discussion about not only what went down between player and program, but what it signified in the broader world of college sports, which is still only a few years into an era in which players can earn money from their name, image and likeness and transfer schools without penalty.
As part of that larger conversation, Pate said on his show last Sunday that Iamaleava’s standoff with Tennessee this spring wasn’t the first time he had come to the Vols for more money than the $2 million per year he was reportedly already making.
“This stuff was happening last December during the playoffs — with this kid included, but not just this kid — they were trying to get more money from Tennessee and other playoff teams before the playoffs,” Pate said. “They were trying to leverage playoff participation.”
Iamaleava’s denial wasn’t limited to just one post, either. In a subsequent Instagram story, he posted a picture of him and former teammate Navy Shuler talking on the field before the Ohio State game about “how ima throw this game rq (real quick),” along with laughing emojis.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Nico Iamaleava denies threatening to sit out Tennessee playoff game
