How Nico Iamaleava can earn a new nickname: 'Mr. Friday Night' | Toppmeyer
How Nico Iamaleava can earn a new nickname: 'Mr. Friday Night' | Toppmeyer
Show Caption Hide Caption Georgia vs. Tennessee: Week 3 picks and predictions USA TODAY's Blake Toppmeyer and the Knoxville News Sentinel's Adam Sparks share their picks for this week's Bulldogs-Vols matchup.
Nico Iamaleava, college football’s 'Mr. April,' has been relegated to the back burner in September.
UCLA will host New Mexico in a chance for a rebrand for Nico Iamaleava.
Nico Iamaleava with a chance to star in an appetizer game, before big-boy games happen Saturday.
College football’s "Mr. April" has been relegated to the back burner in September.
At Tennessee, quarterback Nico Iamaleava became I’ma-leavin’.
At UCLA, he’s I’ma-losin’.
He has been unable to transform UCLA into something other than a lousy team.
The Bruins are the Big Ten’s only 0-2 team after getting trounced by Utah in the season opener, then losing at UNLV in Week 2. UNLV clinched the victory by intercepting Iamaleava in the final minute.
Don’t pin all of the blame on him. He had his moments against Dan Mullen’s Runnin’ Rebels. UCLA’s team, though, stinks.
That should come as no great surprise to Iamaleava. Roughly two minutes of research in April would have told him he was headed to play for a bad team when he transferred from Tennessee to UCLA.
At Big Ten media days, Iamaleava explained he transferred for family reasons, and while we can fairly question much of how he handled the transfer process, no one should doubt his commitment to family.
Just consider what he gave up.
SUPER LEAGUE: Ohio State greed could disrupt Big Ten, spark a college football breakaway league
TOPPMEYER: Hot seat Billy Napier is back, and Florida finally has framework to fire coach
Iamaleava took a pay cut. He swapped playing in a state with no state income tax for the state with the nation’s highest income tax. He departed a good team with a proven coach to play for a bad team and an out-of-his-depth coach. He gave up playing home games in front of raucous fans at Neyland Stadium in favor of UCLA’s sparse crowds.
“My driving factor to come back home was my family,” he said before the season.
It sure couldn’t have been the Bruins’ roster. Iamaleava could be Johnny Manziel, and this team might struggle to finish 7-5. Iamaleava’s not Manziel, and it’s difficult to envision UCLA reaching 7-5.
Georgia vs. Tennessee: 1 key for how each team can win in Week 3 USA TODAY's Blake Toppmeyer and the Knoxville News Sentinel's Adam Sparks explain what it will take for the Bulldogs and Vols to win.
Undoubtedly, Vols fans are dining on schadenfreude, because while Iamaleava’s team is winless, Tennessee is 2-0, flourishing with quarterback Joey Aguilar, who has become one of the great stories of the season’s first two weeks.
UCLA decided it wanted Iamaleava, not Aguilar, to be its starting quarterback. That left Aguilar in a bit of a pickle. He’d transferred to UCLA from Appalachian State in hopes of starting for the Bruins, his home-state school. The Bruins and Iamaleava forced other plans.
UCLA did Aguilar a favor, though. By embracing Iamaleava, the Bruins pushed Aguilar into Josh Heupel’s arms.
Now, though, this story heats up.
[ This column first published in our SEC Unfiltered newsletter, emailed free to your inbox. Want more commentary like this? Sign up here for our newsletter on SEC sports. ]
No. 15 Tennessee will host No. 3 Georgia. The Bulldogs have beaten the Vols eight straight times. Heupel’s offense hasn’t dented Kirby Smart’s defense.
You’ve got to go back to the Jeremy Pruitt era to find the last time Tennessee scored more than 17 points against Georgia.
Aguilar must try to solve an opponent that will look a wee bit more talented than what he faced against Syracuse and East Tennessee State. Iamaleava will be facing New Mexico.
Georgia is the only team to beat Tennessee at Neyland Stadium since the start of the 2022 season. The Vols are a home underdog. The Bruins are heavily favored against New Mexico, playing in front of what promises to be a friends-and-family crowd for a Friday night game at the Rose Bowl.
Nico, get ready. Here’s an opportunity for "Mr. April" to recast himself as "Mr. Friday Night," before the real games begin Saturday.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
