Nico Iamaleava learning the grass isn't always greener after leaving Tennessee

As we get even closer to fall camps starting for football teams across the country, the Tennessee Vols are going to be working overtime to figure some starting roles out. This includes quarterback, as Nico Iamaleava is gone and off to UCLA.

Earlier this month, plenty of eyebrows were raised when Kirk Herbstreit said one the main reasons Iamaleava and his camp decided to leave was because Josh Heupel and Tennessee didn't surround him with enough talent. If true, that's incredibly disappointing.

With Big Ten Media Days here, though, Iamaleava's team is quickly learning that the move to Westwood is going to come with plenty of growing pains. UCLA's offense was horrendous last season. Leading up to Week 1, the Bruins are also checking in at No. 15 in the Big Ten preseason media poll. Sheesh:

Nico Iamaleava could end up regretting leaving Tennessee football for UCLA

So, the Bruins are only ahead of Maryland, Northwestern and Purdue? That's not an ideal spot to be in. Tennessee players at SEC Media Days made it perfectly clear that they're not going to 'hate watch' Iamaleava and UCLA this season. We don't think a lot of UT supporters are going to have the same mindset.

At the same time, Tennessee and Heupel are ready to move on and put in serious work to get back to the College Football Playoff. Once camp gets underway next week, there will be a three-man battle to replace Iamaleava as the offensive leader.

App State/UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre are going to be fired up to make a claim for the job. As we've said in multiple different articles, we have a feeling that Aguilar is going to be able to separate himself after a few days.

In back-to-back seasons, he's thrown for more than 3,000 yards. With him now getting ready to work closely with Heupel, the veteran signal-caller could take his game to the next level. That's what Vols fans are hoping for. As for Iamaleava, he's going to have a ton of pressure on him to try to get UCLA back to where it used to be. That's not going to be easy for him at all.