If Nico Iamaleava officially lands with UCLA, his offensive coordinator will be a former Tennessee Vols assistant coach
Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava is reportedly in NIL negotiations with the UCLA Bruins. Iamaleava hasn't officially signed with UCLA yet, but it appears to be heading in that direction (though situations in the NIL era can quickly change). If Iamaleava lands with UCLA as expected, his offensive coordinator will actually be a former […]
Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava is reportedly in NIL negotiations with the UCLA Bruins.
Iamaleava hasn't officially signed with UCLA yet, but it appears to be heading in that direction (though situations in the NIL era can quickly change).
If Iamaleava lands with UCLA as expected, his offensive coordinator will actually be a former Tennessee assistant.
Earlier this offseason, the Bruins hired Tino Sunseri to replace Eric Bieniemy as the program's offensive coordinator.
Sunseri served as a quality control assistant at Tennessee in 2018 under then head coach Jeremy Pruitt. Additionally, Sunseri is the son of former Vols defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri (Sal was Tennessee's defensive coordinator in 2012…the Vols had the No. 109 scoring defense in the nation that season).
Before landing the offensive coordinator gig at UCLA, Sunseri served as Indiana's co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. Sunseri was also a graduate assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2019 and 2020.
“Coach Tino has been awesome. I've developed so much as a quarterback since working with him in January…I know all of us can say that we've learned and become a better quarterback this year, and a lot of that attributes to Coach Tino,” said Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke this past December.
One of the pillars of Sunseri's offensive approach is to "take what the defense gives you".
"What we’re doing is we’re taking what the defense is giving us,” said Sunseri earlier this month. “The biggest thing that these quarterbacks have to be able to learn in college football is that you need to be needy, not greedy. What we have to continuously do is be able to develop our discipline at quarterback to be able to take what they give us."
‘There’s more to this story than just money’ – Insider says Nico Iamaleava’s departure was related to Tennessee’s offensive style
There’s always more to the story
