Heel Tough Blog: Should the Tar Heels Actually Want Nico Iamaleava?

Robin Alam- ISI Photos

In one of the wildest stories that we have seen in college sports during the NIL era, a starting quarterback from a College Football Playoff team will enter the transfer portal when it opens on Wednesday.

Tennessee starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava and the program decided to officially part ways on Saturday due to an NIL dispute. Tennessee head football coach Josh Heupel told multiple outlets that the decision was made following Iamaleava’s choice to sit out Friday's spring practice amid new NIL negotiations with the program. 

According to ESPN’s report, Iamaleava’s representatives made it known on the final day of the winter transfer window that they were wanting around $4 million which Tennessee chose not to match. Instead, the Volunteers wanted to continue paying on a contract that was costing them roughly $2.4 million a year.

Iamaleava will immediately become the most talented player in the portal when he enters, while also being the most polarizing. This past season, as a redshirt freshman, he threw for 2,616 yards and posted a 19-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio while completing 63.8% of his passes. He also ran for 358 yards and three touchdowns on 109 carries while helping carry Tennessee to the College Football Playoff for the first time.

Immediately after the news was dropped, the Tar Heels were one of the teams that people began pointing to as a possible destination for him. Many cited the urgency to win immediately in Chapel Hill as the reason that the team should make the call with the team currently having two inexperienced options battling for the job. The team even picked up a crystal ball for him on Monday, showing there might be mutual interest between both sides.

So the question is, should the Tar Heels actually be pursuing him? In our opinion, the answer should be no. While Iamaleava would give the Tar Heels an experienced option under center, there is still a question about how good he actually is. His numbers may look solid on the surface, but he struggled against teams that finished better than .500 on the season. In six games against FBS opponents with winning records, his completion percentage dropped to 57.6% and he had just a 5-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio. In those games, he threw for 200 or more yards just once and totaled more than 200 yards of total offense only two times. If he joins this Tar Heel squad, he will be tasked with carrying this offense that doesn’t have nearly the talent that Tennessee’s did a year ago, a task he might not necessarily be up for after what he showed this past season. Add in the headache that he has become off the field and it just doesn’t feel like this is worth the risk when you have a young quarterback like Bryce Baker, who showed so much promise as a true freshman on Saturday night.