Remember the tale of Nico Iamaleava, the quarterback who demanded a raise at Tennessee or else? When negotiations between his agent and school officials went nowhere, he fled to UCLA amid much outrage. “This is what college football has come to?” observers wondered.
Well, the story has taken another twist. It has all blown up in Iamaleava’s face. UCLA is winless. The head coach has been fired. The team will likely experience a massive exodus. Iamaleava either will be stuck with leftovers at UCLA or will seek yet another school.
Iamaleava had everything at Tennessee. In 2024 — his second year as the starter — he helped the Volunteers win 10 games, qualify for its first national playoff berth and finish No. 8 in the polls. He threw for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns (to five interceptions) and ran for another 358 yards and three TDs. He also had a $2 million NIL deal.
It wasn’t enough. He wanted a raise — to $4 million, reportedly. When he didn’t get it, he fled to UCLA, which reportedly gave him less than he had been making at Tennessee (this story just keeps getting better, or worse, as the case might be; see the next paragraph).
UCLA has lost all three of its games since Iamaleava arrived (to Utah, UNLV and New Mexico). Head coach DeShaun Foster was fired. Under NCAA rules (apparently, they still have them — who knew?), players can transfer to another school immediately (without waiting for the official transfer portal to open) if their head coach is fired, but would not be eligible to play the rest of this season.
That leaves Iamaleava with a difficult choice — stay and play with a team that likely will be decimated by outgoing transfers, or find another school and sit out the rest of the season.
“I think this should be a warning for every player out there that is considering making a move,” said former quarterback Danny Kanell, who is now with CBS. “And I think even more so, it’s a warning to those players: be careful of the advice you’re getting.
“I don’t think this was Nico’s fault. I think his dad got heavily involved, he had some representation that was heavily involved, and they thought they could get more money from Tennessee.
“But if you’re going to bluff and act like there are a lot of great opportunities out there, you better make sure you have one, because they were scrambling to find a place for him to go to.”
Meanwhile, Tennessee — the jilted school — is 3-1. The Volunteers’ lone loss was a 3-pointer to No. 5 Georgia. The team’s new quarterback is Joey Aguilar. He had just signed with UCLA last spring when it was announced that Iamaleava was joining the Bruins, as well. So Aguilar fled to Tennessee in what some consider to be college football’s first trade.
Coming out of high school, Aguilar had no offers to play college football. He enrolled at City College of San Francisco, but the season was canceled by the pandemic. He thought his football career was finished and began taking courses to be a firefighter.
He eventually decided to try football again. He played for Diablo Valley College, then Appalachian State, and, after participating in spring practice at UCLA, he transferred to Tennessee last May.
In four games this season he has already passed for 1,124 yards, 12 touchdowns and three interceptions, while averaging a whopping 9.6 yards per attempt and a passer rating of 176.1.
“The quarterback is playing, I think, better than the quarterback last year,” said former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer. “Significantly better. He makes quicker decisions. Sees the field a lot better. Has played a lot better football. Is tremendously accurate when he’s comfortable.”
At UCLA, Iamaleava has passed for 608 yards (an average of 202.67 per game), three touchdowns, three interceptions, 6.3 yards per attempt, six sacks — numbers that, if projected for the entire season, would easily be the worst of his three-year collegiate career. He has a passer rating of 120.6.
Urban Meyer, the former football coach turned broadcaster, had this to say: “What a story, man. Unbelievable. (Aguilar) quit football. He was a firefighter for a year. Think about that. He went to a junior college. Went to App State. I looked it up and it’s not getting enough publicity. Non-recruited, junior college. App State. UCLA. UCLA makes the worst trade in the history of the trades.”
It’s the story of today’s college game: One quarterback chose to leave and thrived; the other chose to leave and it backfired. They were largely the same decision, if for different reasons, and very different outcomes.
