'Those people that would literally die for you' — Georgia insider delivers hard truth on Nico Iamaleava's split from Tennessee Vols affecting his future
Fans of the Tennessee Vols and Georgia Bulldogs don't often see eye to eye. That's the nature of the beast when it comes to rivalries. However, get any fan from one of those schools off the record, and I bet you'd be hard pressed to find one who wouldn't respect the passion, loyalty and intensity […]
Fans of the Tennessee Vols and Georgia Bulldogs don't often see eye to eye. That's the nature of the beast when it comes to rivalries. However, get any fan from one of those schools off the record, and I bet you'd be hard pressed to find one who wouldn't respect the passion, loyalty and intensity from the other side.
It's that passion, loyalty, and fanaticism from Tennessee fans to their players that causes Dawgs 247 Georgia insider Rusty Mansell to believe that Nico Iamaleava made a mistake not just leaving Tennessee but doing it in the manner he did by no-showing at practice the day before the spring game.
Mansell joined That SEC Football Podcast and talked about the ramifications on Iamaleava and players in general who up and leave abruptly through the transfer portal.
"My problem with the way that was handled is that you're a day before your spring game, and your teammates can't get in touch with you," Mansell said. "The long term of that is – and this is my knowing as a 51-year-old man – you take an alumni base like Tennessee, and you take a fan base, and you do that to them, you take those two and a half years of those people that would literally die for you, they're done with you. They're done with you for life.
"You're not going to move to Nashville and call so-and-so and say, 'hey, I want to start a podcast, can I rent that building from you?' No, you cut off an entire alumni and a fan base. That connection is lost for life. I think about those long-term decisions.
"I've got one of my best friends who came to Georgia – I really want to say his name, but not gonna do it to him – very highly recruited, very highly rated player in the 90s. Comes to Georgia, and things didn't really work out for him. After four years, he just graduated and left. But he didn't show his you-know-what or didn't do anything like that. He just went to Georgia, and he graduated and went home. He is unbelievably successful in the medical field world. Had he done Georgia that way – he got that job because he knew somebody that was a Georgia alum that set him up for an interview. That guy wasn't a star, but he had that fan base, he had that alumni connection, he made that connection, and he was able to get a job, and he has a great home, a great family, and he did that because he had that fan base, he had that alumni association in behind him.
"Nico, you start making decisions – some of these kids are going to 3 or 4 schools. You're not meeting people. You're dining and dashing at these schools. It does no good to go to 4 schools in 5 years because when basketball is done at 26, what are you going to do? Are you going to call a guy up that you met for 2 months? I like to think about the long term there. I know Nico, that's a whole deal, but all I could think about was, kid, you just took one of the biggest alumni groups – passionate groups, Tennessee fans – and they're done with you."
I think Mansell's argument is fair – to a point. For the vast majority of players who do not go on to the NFL, finding a connection for life after football is indeed very important, and being loyal to a strong fanbase who can provide a bevy of business opportunities is key.
But we're in a new era of football where some – although far from the majority – can make life-changing money at the college level, with some players having the opportunity to earn enough to potentially retire after their college careers are done. And other players – such as Miami's Cam Ward, who went from draft afterthought to the #1 pick by the Titans last month – have managed to transfer into the perfect situation to elevate their NFL opportunities.
That being said, the way that Nico's departure went down also helped burn any possible remaining bridges with the Tennessee fanbase. Perhaps if it was a more amicable departure, but the no show at practice and the message from his father on Twitter/X and surrounding rumors of wanting more money helped make sure that there was no bridge that wasn't smoldering by the time he left town.
Perhaps Nico's departure and the fallout around it will result in other players who decide to move on doing so in a way that's a lot softer and perhaps keeps some relationships intact. Because, no matter how good your professional football prospects might be, you never know when you might need to call in a favor one day.
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