“He will not get what he's asking”: Pete Thamel snaps Nico Iamaleava back to reality after his messy split
Nico Iamaleava saw his time at Tennessee come to an end last weekend after a NIL contract saga. At the tail end of the Volunteers' spring camp, the quarterback attempted to renegotiate his NIL deal with the school, leading to a breakup between both parties after two years.
Iamaleava entered the transfer portal officially when it opened on Wednesday, seeking to continue his career elsewhere. However, it appears the quarterback is short of suitors willing to meet the $4 million demand that practically led him out of Knoxville.
ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel was on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday to discuss the update on Nico Iamaleava and his search for a new destination. Thamel made it known that the willingness among teams in search of a quarterback to offer him something big is very low.
“Let's start with his market,” Thamel said. “... This is what I have distilled from talking to sources on all sides. What is certain about Nico's market is that he will not get what he's asking, and he will not get the $4 million-ish that was desired from Tennessee, which would be top of the market in this college football 2025 season. That is not going to happen.
“What's expected is he's going to get less than he was making, which was somewhere in the low-to-mid $2 million range as part of his initial, then-historic deal that got him to Tennessee.”
Pete Thamel believes a team will still pick up Nico Iamaleava
While Nico Iamaleava is not getting the amount of interest that was anticipated before making his way to the transfer portal, Pete Thamel believes he's still going to find a team on the portal. The insider believes he belongs to a talent level that can't be overlooked.
“What's happening right now is that his market is dropping,” Thamel said. “It's bottoming out and I am not going to be hyperbolic and say he has nowhere to go or he's not going to end up anywhere because he is a very good player.
"He is better than I would think a majority of college quarterbacks. So there will be someone who takes Nico.”
Since the contract fiasco with Tennessee became public knowledge, a host of teams have been linked to Nico Iamaleava. These include Notre Dame, North Carolina, UCLA, USC, Tulane, and a host of others. However, none of these teams has come forward with a solid interest.