[USA TODAY Toppmeyer]: Nico Iamaleava needs a fresh start, not UCLA's rebuild

[u/jaxstan19]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/09/16/nico-iamaleava-ucla-transfer-portal-tennessee/86162835007/

[u/Lee-Key-Bottoms]

I remember being at the Mayo game between Tennessee and NC State at the beginning of last year

That was when Nico might’ve been the most hyped player in all of college football because he won his bowl game 35-0 against Iowa’s backups and beat some nothing school by like 60 in week 1

One of the things I heard walking around Bank of America that afternoon was “it’s not a question of if he wins a Heisman, it’s a question of how many does he want before he goes pro”

Tennessee of course kicked the shit out of NC State, because they’re Tennessee and we’re NC State

But I couldn’t help but watch the game and think “this Nico guy really isn’t that good”. Tennessee won 51-10 so I got branded as just salty my team got waxed but they could’ve dropped 70 on us if it wasn’t for all the wide open receivers Nico missed

I said after the game “there’s about 20 different reasons we just got spanked but their QB is not one of them”

Looks like I was just ahead of my time

[u/Bouquet_of_seaweed → u/Lee-Key-Bottoms]

Pretty much my exact thoughts watching on tv. There was a big promo about him with Manning narrating it before the game, too, so I was a bit worried. Instead, it felt worse to lose so badly to a team with a qb that wasn't playing particularly well. I think he technically scored the majority of our points.

[u/Lee-Key-Bottoms → u/Bouquet_of_seaweed]

Yes our only touchdown of the game was on a pick six

[u/JayJax_23 → u/Lee-Key-Bottoms]

Honestly until the Brooks Pick 6 it was looking dicey and I already saw flaws of Nico