Nico Iamaleava's transfer saga has ended, as the former Tennessee quarterback has made his transfer to UCLA official. While that part of the story has ended, much remains to be written on how the redshirt sophomore's relationship with the Volunteers unraveled. ESPN has a feature out today that explores how we got here.
The story claims Iamaleava almost left Tennessee before the transfer window closed in December before being reeled back in by coach Josh Heupel. Then, Iamaleava's reps reportedly wanted to renegotiate his NIL deal, but things were not going in the direction they'd hoped. Then, the story drops its biggest bombshell: Those around the young quarterback began gauging the interest of other programs while he was still enrolled at Tennessee.
One part of the story that had been rumored turned out to be true, according to the report. In March, Tennessee's coaches were alerted by Oregon's staff that Iamaleava had reached out to the Ducks to gauge their interest in a transfer. Oregon told the quarterback it wasn't interested.
The full passage from the story:
Before Tennessee's spring practices began in March, school officials were alerted by Oregon's staff that Iamaleava's camp had contacted the Ducks inquiring about their interest, according to sources at Oregon and Tennessee. Oregon told the Iamaleava camp it wasn't interested.
Rumors had floated for weeks that Dan Lanning's staff at Oregon told Tennessee officials that the quarterback had reached out. Now we have confirmation from both schools that the story is true.
It makes sense that Oregon would inform Tennessee of the contact to avoid allegations of tampering. The Ducks have former five-star Dante Moore penciled in as the starter for the fall, so they didn't need to land Iamaleava.
In the end, the young quarterback left Tennessee and wound up at UCLA in one of the messier divorces we've seen in this new age of college sports.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Nico Iamaleava's Reps Contacted CFP Team to Gauge Interest Before Transfer Saga Began.
