Of all the people to make sense of the wild transfer drama from this offseason, former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer is the one to talk some sense into us all? Believe it or not, that's exactly the case when it comes to Tennessee football.
Not long ago, as you all know by now, quarterback Nico Iamaleava made the stunning decision to enter the transfer portal and sign with UCLA. It's a move that's going to be questioned for quite some time and it's a decision that Meyer still can't believe.
Not only that, but Meyer is quite confident that sooner rather than later, Nico and his camp are 100 percent going to regret things. While speaking on his podcast, Meyer indeed didn't hesitate in saying that Iamaleava and Co. made a huge mistake by leaving Knoxville. You can see Meyer's thoughts at the 20:35 mark of the clip below:
Urban Meyer is confident Nico Iamaleava will fully regret leaving the Tennessee Vols
“I see like Nico (Iamaleava) is the most famous of the stories out there and I always tell people this is going to be one of those deals a couple of years from now they’re going to say - whether it be the father, third uncle or an agent say, ‘tell me again why I did that. Why did I just do that?’ Because a 17, 18, 19 year old kid, all due respect, they’re not equipped to make that decision. They can’t. That’s why the call parents parents. That’s why they call coaches coaches. Someone’s got to advise and help them that’s been through the ringer a little bit.”
Hard to argue with anything Meyer said. At the end of the day, Iamaleava had everything going his way with the Vols. Tennessee just reached the College Football Playoff last campaign and he impressed in his first season as the starter for Josh Heupel.
The Vols are built to push for a return trip to the CFP and the expectation was that Iamaleava was going to take a step forward in 2025. Instead, reports came out that he was looking for a new NIL deal, but UT simply was not going to budge there.
This opened the door for Iamaleava to hit the portal and while he didn't get the reported money he was looking for, a move closer to home came through with the Bruins signing him. Still, Iamaleava is going from working with an offensive genius in Heupel to playing for one of the worst offenses in 2024 in the Big Ten. It feels like Iamaleava is taking a huge gamble and it's a decision he may be rethinking down the road. Meyer thinks he'll start to second guess himself soon enough.