Nico Iamaleava is no longer a member of the college football program at the University of Tennessee and Oregon head coach Dan Lanning might be the reason why. He is choosing not to say.
His non-answer alludes to the underlying truth.
Iamaleava, a five-star prospect in the college football recruiting Class of 2023, ranked behind only Arch Manning as the No. 2 quarterback and No. 2 overall recruit in the country. He signed with the Volunteers on what was considered the largest NIL deal in history at the time. It was valued at approximately $8 million over four years, depending on how long he chose to stay in school.
Iamaleava was paid a little bit north of $2 million to serve as the backup to Joe Milton as a freshman. Not bad gig if you can get it! He received around the same amount in 2024 and Tennessee made the Playoff.
Unfortunately, Nico Iamaleava, his father and those who represent him got greedy.
They saw guys like Carson Beck and Darian Mensah getting paid around $4 million per year and decided to seek a similar number. To do so, they quietly shopped around for a better deal at other schools while actively negotiating a bigger deal with Spyre Sports Group, the primary NIL arm in Knoxville.
Things reached a head on Thursday when news broke of the ongoing negotiations. Iamaleava’s father trashed the inital report and called the reporter a derogatory word that is synonymous female dog, and then his son no-showed practice on Friday. Did not show up.
His camp says that it was for “mental health purposes” after his name was trending on social media. Yeah right. And I totally didn’t skip class in college because I was hungover.
Tennessee saw right through the bogus excuse and sent him packing on the day before its spring game. Iamaleava is going to enter the transfer portal when the spring window opens this week. He will play next year somewhere else.
As all of this went down over the last few days, a rumor started to swirl on the internet. Dan Lanning supposedly told the Vols that their starting quarterback was asking around for a monster NIL deal at a new school. Everything else that transpired stemmed from the head coach at Oregon’s tip.
This story is not confirmed as truth. However, Lanning did not say no.
When asked about his role in the Iamaleava saga, the 39-year-old head coach chose not to comment. He said he was not interested in talking about anything other than his own football program. The Ducks are not in the mix for the five-star quarterback. They have Dante Moore. Next question.
If Lanning did not tip off Tennessee, why would he not say that? Read between the lines…
The post Dan Lanning Refuses To Deny Whether He Tipped Off Tennessee About Nico Iamaleava’s Money Grab appeared first on BroBible.
Dan Lanning Refuses To Deny Whether He Tipped Off Tennessee About Nico Iamaleava’s Money Grab
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