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ESPN’s Pete Thamel: Nico Iamaleava ‘expected’ to land worse deal than he had at Tennessee
By Paul Harvey
Published:
With the transfer portal opening on Wednesday, the Nico Iamaleava saga rolls onward with the quarterback in search of his new home. ESPN’s Pete Thamel has been tracking the story throughout, and he weighed in with his latest update on the market for the former Tennessee QB.
Speaking on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Thamel divided his latest report into 2 sections: What he feels is “certain” and what he believes is “expected” for the QB. As for the certainties, Thamel believes it is clear that Iamaleava and his camp are not going to get what he was asking from the Vols which would be a deal around $4 million.
“What is certain about Nico’s market is that he will not get what he’s asking, and he will not get the $4 million-ish that was desired from Tennessee, which would be top of the market in this college football 2025 season,” said Thamel. “That is not going to happen.”
As for the expected portion of his report, Thamel said he fully believes the QB will wind up with a deal below what he was already set to make in Knoxville for the 2025 season. However, Thamel still believes someone is going to take a chance on Iamaleava based on the talent he possesses.
“What’s expected is he is going to get less than he was making, which was somewhere in the low to mid $2 million range as a part of his then initial (and) historic deal that got him to Tennessee,” Thamel revealed. “What’s happening right now is his market is dropping. It’s bottoming out. I’m not going to be hyperbolic and say he’s got nowhere to go… there will be someone who takes Nico.”
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How low will that market fall for Iamaleava? Time will tell, but with teams in the middle of completing their spring practices, some team is bound to take a chance on Iamaleava in an effort to improve their QB room.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
