Nico Iamaleava will officially be in the NCAA Transfer Portal tomorrow as one of the better quarterbacks on the market, whether just this spring or over the course of this offseason. That said, with what all now surrounds the former Volunteer, Paul Finebaum thinks that his next program will be adding him at their own risk.
Finebaum was asked about the potential market for Iamaleava in the portal on ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday. He felt a lot of those options should keep out of that recruitment if for no other reason than the off-field issues that have shown to be there now coming out of last week’s story on Rocky Top.
“I would stay away from him,” said Finebaum. “You know, buyer beware of this guy.”
“It’s not even Nico. It’s, it’s the whole apparatus. I mean, you’re not dealing – something tells me Nico is not personally in the middle of these negotiations. Team Nico is,” Finebaum said. “And I mean there is a, there is a toxic feeling about this player because of the attention and because he is the one that everyone is talking about. And I would be very careful.”
Iamaleava is obviously all over college football right now coming out of the result of his negotiations with Tennessee. The Vols held firm as far as name, image, and likeness and, with that, their expected starting quarterback elected to transfer elsewhere for more compensation.
That’s where things stand off the field. On the field, though, Iamaleava would be an instant impact of an addition at quarterback, especially if his development has continued from being a former five-star and through two college seasons going into his third. That leaves teams considering him to decide whether that risk that’s now there is worth that potential reward.
“First of all, I mean, you guys are better evaluators than I am. But, he’s a good quarterback. You know, how elite is he?” Finebaum asked. “I mean, if you don’t have a quarterback, he’s by far a better option than, than some guy who can really get signals in from the coach on the sideline. But I don’t think, in the short-term, and that’s all we’re really talking about with him, he is going to make a significant difference.”
“Can he help? Sure. We saw that with Tennessee,” said Finebaum. “I mean, if you look at Tennessee’s schedule right now, a couple of games that were Tennessee favored, toss-up games are changing at the moment until Tennessee can clear that up. So, he can impact a football team.”
Everyone wants to know where Nico goes next in this storyline from out of Knoxville. Still, where he does end up, he’ll be bringing a lot of a new reputation with him that Finebaum knows will have an effect on his recruitment by any possible teams in the portal.
“You also have to decide what is the cost,” Finebaum said. “Every, everywhere he goes, there’s going to be this halo around him that says he held out, he asked for money, he’s a problem child, stay away.”
