Former Tennessee Star Quarterback's Family Insists NIL Didn't Lead to Exit

The potential new UCLA Bruins quarterback's family claims that NIL had nothing to do with his decision to leave the Tennessee Volunteers.

Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava (8) walks off the field after the win over Kentucky after an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Knoxville, Tenn. / Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The craziest story surrounding NIL yet has reached a new update as former Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava has chosen his next team.

Colin Cowherd, founder of The Volume, broke the news on Wednesday afternoon that Iamaleava would be joining the UCLA Bruins.

In that announcement, he stated that the quarterback's family is claiming that the reason that he left the Volunteers was not about money. Rather, they say that he was unhappy with the offense that Josh Heupel was running.

This comes soon after reports came out that Iamaleava was asking schools for around $4 million. That is far more than the $2.2 million he was supposedly set to make with Tennessee this season.

It is, at least for now, unknown what he is going to get with the move to the Bruins. Reports were that he was getting approached with deals closer to $1 million.

Even if he does end up signing with UCLA for close to the same amount or less than he was going to get from the Volunteers, it is hard to imagine the unhappiness not stemming from NIL given how much he was seeking at first.

Multiple things can be true at once, though, as he really might not have been a great fit for Heupel's offense either.

He completed 63.8% of his passes last year for 2,616 yards with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. That is a far cry from the production that is expected from a five-star quarterback.

The College Football Playoff loss to the eventual champion Ohio State Buckeyes is something that has been brought up a lot with this recent news.

Iamaleava threw 31 passes in that game, but only had 104 yards with no scores. Even with that Buckeyes clearly being a better team, that is a worrying performance.

Through his two years with Tennessee, his career has not taken the shape that nearly anyone expected. Perhaps the Bruins can actually be the team to make him look like that player that his price tag suggests he can be.

UCLA has not had a 10-win season since 2014 and are going to be switching up offenses a bit in the second year of Deshaun Foster's tenure.

They hired Tino Sunseri to replace Eric Bienemy this offseason. Sunseri has had a great few years of working with quarterbacks, leading the James Madison Dukes to 34.1 points per game with Jordan McCloud in 2023 and the Indiana Hoosiers to 41.3 points last year.

Kurtis Rourke transformed into a new quarterback under Sunseri last year. Iamaleava will be hoping to have the same success.

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