The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence; it is green where you water it. Green may be the color of money, but Nico Iamaleava is not about to swap out process-colored cheese orange in favor of a baby blue sky. That is right. The North Carolina Tar Heels are no longer a serious player to land the former Tennessee Volunteers quarterback by way of the spring transfer portal.
New UNC head coach Bill Belichick has opted to go with a former Group of Five starter in Gio Lopez of the South Alabama Jaguars. On3's Pete Nakos did a great job of breaking down Iamaleava's market. Truth be told, it was not anywhere as robust as the former Tennessee starter thought. The two other schools besides North Carolina who are still tied to Iamaleava would be Tulane and UCLA. That is it.
Iamaleava hails from Long Beach, California so coming hot to Southern California to play for the Bruins may not be the worst idea in the world. Then again, we have no idea what the ceiling will be for former UCLA star running back DeShaun Foster as their head coach. Tulane is a good landing spot for him, as Jon Sumrall is an elite coach. They have to replace TJ Finley, but play in the Group of Five.
Belichick opting to go with Lopez over Iamaleava is a sign of the times in the sport of college football.
NEW: North Carolina is out of the mix for Tennessee transfer QB Nico Iamaleava, @PeteNakos_ reportsā
ā On3 (@On3sports) April 14, 2025
The Tar Heels are viewed as the favorite to land South Alabama QB Gio Lopez. https://t.co/60ckCH3Fmc https://t.co/5OJAkHOrJp pic.twitter.com/S2AwQmBlqL
Iamaleava giving up a starting spot on a College Football Playoff team for this is absolute lunacy.
With UNC out of the picture, where should Nico Iamaleava transfer to?
Prior to this news coming out from Nakos, North Carolina had been my pick where I thought Iamaleava would end up. Oregon initially had been the team I thought he was most likely to go to, but that seems to have changed with the amount of vitriol being thrown Dan Lanning's way. Then again, he still may end up with him because that guy loves transfer quarterbacks more than anything else.
So between Tulane and UCLA, Iamaleava has to come to grips with a few things. He is not going to get as much money from either school as he thinks. Again, Tulane competes at the Group of Five. Sumrall may be an elite head coach, but the Green Wave just lost their starting quarterback to Duke in Darian Mensah for $3 million. That might be what Tulane is willing to give him, and that will be about it.
As for UCLA, the Bruins are rarely big spenders in these sort of endeavors. They will land quality quarterbacks every so often, but it is not their bread and butter. Besides, UCLA may only be a borderline bowl team this fall, whereas Tulane could win the Group of Five to make the College Football Playoff. UCLA is close to home, but I would rather hitch my wagon to Sumrall if I were him.
The best thing Iamaleava could have done was kept his mouth shut and gave his all for Tennessee.