Marcus Freeman on Nico Iamaleava situation: ‘Transactional decisions aren’t always the best ones’

Last weekend’s surprise divorce between Tennessee and returning starting QB Nico Iamaleava has been the talk of the college football world, with college football coaches from Mario Cristobal to Kirby Smart sounding off on the situation.

You can now count Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman among those to weigh in on the shocking breakup over an attempted power play renegotiation of Iamaleava’s NIL deal with the Volunteers. For his part, Freeman appeared more bothered by the fact that those renegotiations became so public.

“I think that was a situation that became public, but I think it happens all over the country, right? I think you have representatives for players and representatives for the university that are kind of having those discussions, but that one was a public one,” Freeman told On3’s JD PicKell on Tuesday. “The reality is our players are getting compensated, deserve to get compensated. What you don’t want to do, which I’m sure you’ve heard many coaches say, you don’t want players to make a temporary decision based off a temporary situation that’s going to affect them long term.

“Transactional decisions aren’t always the best ones for your future. And I think every situation is different, every football program is different,” Freeman continued. “At the end of the day you want to do what’s right for college football, between what’s right for college football and also what’s right for our players. But you don’t want this public disagreement to really tarnish what’s so good about our profession and our sport.”

Iamaleava, a former 2023 five-star signee out of Long Beach, Calif., is expected to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal when the Spring portal window opens Wednedsay, after NIL negotiations broke down between his representatives and Tennessee officials late last week. That failed negotiation led Iamaleava to skip out on the Volunteers’ final Spring practice Friday, and the two sides opted to part ways late Friday, one day before Tennessee’s Orange-White Spring game Saturday.

LSU head coach Brian Kelly also addressed the Tennessee situation after Iamaleava left the program suggesting it could be the beginning of a trend in college sports. 

“Well, I think we’re in this period of adjustment, right,” Kelly said. “I mean, I think, you know, we’ve got a settlement that is in the throes of being decided. The house settlement is coming close to bringing us, most likely, some form of revenue sharing. I think there’s changes coming in NIL, I think this is the first version of corrections, maybe. And, you know, I think that we’re going to see a lot of this. This was a new world, and I think we’re going to navigate it the best that we can, but I think that there’s going to be other situations that come, and we’re just going to have to do the best we can.”

ESPN’s Heather Dinich on Nico Iamaleava exit at Tennessee: ‘There are no winners’

ESPN’s Heather Dinich claimed there were no winners in the Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee situation. He and his representatives played hard ball, but it backfired and resulted in his departure from the program.

“There are no winners in this and how it impacts the future depends on how this story ends,” Dinich said on Get Up. “Watch what happens in the portal with Nico Iamaleava. Does he eventually wind up getting the money that he wants? Because if he does, he might wind up looking like a hero to other players. If he doesn’t, this is a cautionary tale.”

Heck, fellow ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum said teams should stay away from Iamaleava. Basically, it’s your own fault for taking the risk.

“I would stay away from him,” Finebaum said. “You know, buyer beware of this guy. It’s not even Nico. It’s, it’s the whole apparatus. I mean, you’re not dealing – something tells me Nico is not personally in the middle of these negotiations. Team Nico is,” Finebaum said. “And I mean there is a, there is a toxic feeling about this player because of the attention and because he is the one that everyone is talking about. And I would be very careful.”

— On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report.

The post Marcus Freeman on Nico Iamaleava situation: ‘Transactional decisions aren’t always the best ones’ appeared first on On3.