Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman Weighs in on Nico Iamaleava’s Shocking Tennessee Departure

Freeman discussed the Tennessee situation with J.D. Pickell of On3

Apr 12, 2025; Notre Dame, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Steve Angeli (18) watches alongside head coach Marcus Freeman during the Blue-Gold game at Notre Dame Stadium. / Michael Caterina-Imagn Images

The biggest news in college football in recent days has been former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava entering the transfer portal after essentially holding the program hostage with NIL demands.

Could such a thing ever happen at Notre Dame? It's certainly possible, but head coach Marcus Freeman is certainly trying to avoid that. He was asked by J.D. Pickell of On3 about the Tennessee situation and it's safe to say Freeman wasn't a fan of how things went down.

"...What you don't want to do is what I'm sure you've heard many coaches say, is you don't want players to make a temporary decision based off a temporary situation that's going to affect them long term, right?" Freeman asked. "And that transactional decisions aren't always the best ones for your future."

"And you know, I think every situation is different, every football program is different. But at the end of the day, you want to do what's right for college football, between what's right for college football but also what's right for our players, but you don't want this public disagreement to really, really tarnish what's so good about our profession, and our sport."

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman speaks on the Nico Iamaleava/Tennesssee situation⬇️

"Transactional decisions aren't always the best ones for your future."

(via @jdpickell) pic.twitter.com/hmVFRJKoES

— On3 (@On3sports) April 15, 2025

Freeman and Notre Dame are in the middle of a quarterback derby currently as Steve Angeli, CJ Carr, and Kenny Minchey battle for 2025's starting spot. There is the possibility that one ends up transferring before long, but that'd almost certainly have more to do with losing the competition than it would NIL pay.

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