COLLEGE Football star Nico Iamaleava has spoken for the first time since transferring from Tennessee to UCLA.
Iamaleava made a controversial exit from Tennessee due to reported NIL reasons, but he says those reports are untrue.
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“My driving factor to come back home was my family, and I hope every Tennessee fan understands that,” Iamaleava said at Big Ten media days.
“It was just a lot of drama, but man, I’m excited to be at UCLA.”
He pointed at “false reports” about him wanting more compensation in his NIL deals.
Iamaleava is taking a firm stance that his only reason for moving was his family, as he is a native of Long Beach, California.
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He said the reports about him at Tennessee made him “not comfortable in the position I was in.”
“I think just the outside world, in general, thinks that it was something that it wasn’t,” Iamaleava told ESPN.
“Going back home was always in the back of my head.
“Just being back closer to my family; [it] took a toll on getting my family to Tennessee. It was just a lot of traveling.”
Reports indicated earlier this year that Iamaleava wanted to increase his yearly compensation to $4 million for 2025.
He was previously paid $2.4 million per year on a deal that would pay him over $8 million in his time at Tennessee.
That reportedly wasn’t enough, and ESPN reported that Iamaleava’s cap reached out to Miami, Ole Miss, Oregon, and other schools about a transfer.
“I don’t speak on money matters,” Iamaleava said.
“I’m just here for ball and school.”
During his NIL negotiations, Iamaleava failed to show up for a spring practice, causing coach Johsh Heupel to officially “move on” from the quarterback.
“I want to thank him for everything he’s done since he’s gotten here, as a recruit and who he was as a player and how he competed inside the building,” Heupel said at the time.
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“There’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T. That includes me.”
Iamaleava will now look to bring a UCLA team that went 5-7 last season back into contention.
Head coach DeShaun Foster thinks he can do so.
“We’re just excited to have a playoff quarterback,” Foster said.
“Just being able to come back home and be comfortable and being in a familiar environment, I think the sky is the limit.”
