More information regarding Nico Iamaleava’s exit from Tennessee is beginning to surface.
During his show on Sunday night, Josh Pate indicated Iamaleava — and other college football players — nearly held out of College Football Playoff games last December amidst contract negotiations with their programs.
Pate made his comments during a lengthy rant on the ever-evolving landscape of college football.
“Just a complete embarrassment on all fronts,” Pate said of the Iamaleava situation. “That’s been brewing for a long time. Not necessarily specific to Tennessee, but this kind of garbage has been coming for a long time. The first thing I want you to notice, as we dive into this, a lot of the people who have been pushing for the changes that are happening in this sport … they would call them progress, I would call them just ‘changes.’ A lot of the stuff they told you you didn’t have to worry about, a lot of the stuff they told you wouldn’t happen, it’s funny how it keeps happening.
“That same crowd fails to mention that this past December, cats like Nico Iamaleava almost held out of Playoff games because they were trying to re-negotiate contracts in the middle of a Playoff run. He wasn’t the only one, he wasn’t the only one.”
Pate’s comments come in the first minute of the video below:
Tennessee ended up losing its first-ever College Football Playoff game to Ohio State last December. Iamaleava had one of his worst performances of the season as he threw for just 104 yards on 31 pass attempts against a Buckeyes team that went on to win the national title.
Iamaleava is set to enter the transfer portal when it officially opens on Wednesday. Tennessee is expected to look for a replacement in the portal as well this spring as the Vols once again have CFP aspirations in 2025.
