‘Shouldn’t Have Left’: Colin Cowherd on Nico Iamaleava’s Transfer to UCLA

Will Nico Iamaleava become the cautionary tale of NIL?

That’s a question on college football fans’ minds ahead of the start of the 2025 season, months after a very messy divorce between Iamaleava and Tennessee in mid-April, which was reportedly sparked by failed attempts to renegotiate the quarterback’s name, image and likeness compensation package.

FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt and Colin Cowherd discussed the topic on a recent episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” with Cowherd making a bold statement about Iamaleava’s decision to depart Knoxville.

“He shouldn’t have left Tennessee,” Cowherd said. “They [the Volunteers] have higher gamers. You are gonna face extra NFL our bodies possibly in that schedule in comparison with UCLA‘s this 12 months. … However he’s good, and he’s type of what the NFL is on the lookout for. He strikes actually, rather well.”

Why did Iamaleava go away Tennessee within the first place?

These representing Iamaleava had been reportedly looking for a renegotiated bundle that might pay him roughly $4 million for the upcoming season relatively than the $2.4 million he was anticipated to earn. A back-and-forth disagreement ensued, which led to move coach Josh Heupel transferring on from the star quarterback as a result of “nobody is greater than” this system. 

Iamaleava entered the switch portal and dedicated to UCLA the next week. He has declined to debate the specifics of his new NIL settlement, which is able to reportedly pay him simply shy of $2 million this season.

“Here is why I’d defend Nico just a little bit,” Klatt mentioned of the Southern California native. “He by no means actually acquired an opportunity to inform his facet of the story. You recognize, Tennessee ran out mainly a propaganda effort and acquired to inform the story with out Nico being concerned in any respect. It was not all about cash. It actually wasn’t. If it was, he would not have gone to UCLA, which is the tell-tale signal.”

Klatt additionally pointed to the offensive system Heupel runs at Tennessee and the way it restricted Iamaleava’s skillset.

“He needed the offense to develop with him. … That offense that Josh Heupel runs is … nearly like a glorified highschool offense … and the rationale that it would not develop a quarterback is as a result of every thing is a half-field learn. … Nico understood that. … They needed the offense to broaden and to develop and to develop, and when it did not try this by means of spring soccer, that is when he was like, ‘I don’t know if that is the best place for me.'”

UCLA is getting into Yr 2 below new head coach DeShaun Foster after ending 5-7 general and 3-6 in convention play final fall. If all goes nicely for Iamaleava, this might very nicely be his solely season with the Bruins earlier than getting into the 2026 NFL Draft.

“I hope he succeeds,” Klatt mentioned about Iamaleava. “We’ll see.”

UCLA opens the 2025 school soccer season towards Utah at 8 p.m. ET Saturday on FOX.

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