Tennessee Volunteers transfer Nico Iamaleava could’ve been the catalyst for change in college football. Instead, he chose to make his controversial decision to leave Rocky Top for the UCLA Bruins about what the media said about him.
USA Today’s Matt Hayes sniped Iamaleava’s intentions in a scathing opinion piece.
“He could’ve detailed how the player procurement sausage is made – recruiting, contract negotiations, predatory sports agents and their bloated fees, prove-it or lose it rosters spots, player retention and player run-off – and how, despite what Joe Sixpack thinks, players aren’t the boogeyman,” Hayes wrote.
“Instead he talked about ‘false (media) reports’ and the ‘noise’ outside his inner circle that he ignores by playing video games. He said he loved his time at Tennessee, and he just wanted to go home to Los Angeles.”
Iamaleava’s father famously attacked On3’s Peter Nakos for first reporting that there was a negotiation issue between his son and UT. That led to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio calling out Iamaleava’s representation for having no PR strategy regarding his highly publicized exit and deeming the Vols the victors of the narrative war.
“Yes, Tennessee has won the P.R. battle — largely because Iamaleava’s camp hasn’t bothered to implement any real P.R. strategy at all,” Florio wrote.
The war between Iamaleava and Tennessee is over, but the war on college football from university presidents, as Hayes points out, is the ultimate battle.
Iamaleava could’ve helped move the needle. Hayes believes he punted instead.