Nico Iamaleava Is Headed to UCLA, According to Colin Cowherd

Well, there you have it. The seemingly lone Power Four program left interested in Nico Iamaleava's services has reportedly scored them and in a shocking twist, his departure from Tennessee was actually about the Vols' offense all along and not trying to extort an additional $2 million from UT that he never ended up getting from anyone. What a misunderstanding.

I suppose Nico's camp actually is correct that Tennessee's offense last season slipped a bit from what it had been in Josh Heupel's first three seasons in Knoxville, which is remarkably ironic given last year was the only one with Iamaleava as the starting quarterback. Luckily for Nico, he's headed to a UCLA offense that lit up the scoreboard to the tune of 18.4 points per game last season, good for 126th out of 134 FBS teams. I have no doubt he will have those guys whipped into shape and sprinting after overthrows in no time.

I just hope Nico and his family are happy with how all of this played out. He got himself kicked off a College Football Playoff contender that could have set him up for a massive NFL payday in a year if he just went out and played well and will instead spend 2025 on a team with a win total of 4.5, almost certainly making less than he was going to at Tennessee and paying California taxes instead of no state income tax. The art of the deal.