DeShaun Foster on Nico Iamaleava, transfer players: ‘I don’t think the money played a role’

On Monday, Nico Iamaleava officially committed to UCLA in the NCAA Transfer Portal after he couldn’t come to an agreement with Tennessee on a restructured NIL deal. Iamaleava was reportedly seeking a $4 million deal from the Volunteers, a significant raise from his reported pre-existing $2.4 million deal.

Specific details haven’t emerged regarding Iamaleava’s NIL deal with UCLA but Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster referred to it as “successful.” In fact, on Tuesday, Foster refused to go into much detail at all about Iamaleava’s deal.

“I don’t see it should,” Foster said when asked how money affects players who are in the transfer portal or considering entering. “He could have got — well, I’m not even gonna speak on it. But, I don’t think the money played a role in somebody staying or going.”

Foster’s latter sentence is key. The Bruins didn’t only add to its roster with its move to acquire Iamaleava, it also lost QB Joey Aguilar. The veteran QB transferred to UCLA from Appalachian State in December but hit the portal again when UCLA formally signed Iamaleava.

Ironically, Aguilar ended up where Iamaleava had come from: Tennessee. And evidently, Tennessee picked up the experienced QB at a discount. According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, Tennessee is expected to pay Aguilar up to seven figures less than Iamaleava’s scheduled $2.4 million compensation.

Despite the numerous reports surrounding Iamaleava’s decision to transfer out of Tennessee, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the redshirt sophomore and his father used “scheme fit and NFL preparedness” as reasons for his decision to leave Tennessee. ESPN College GameDay had a visceral reaction to the claim.

“That’s hot garbage, by the way,” Davis said. “The one thing that they have said is that, well, the pieces around him weren’t sufficient, weren’t what he needed. And UCLA is?

“… I believe in [UCLA head coach] DeShaun Foster. I think he’s a good coach and a good fit there. But you can’t go in and start saying that Tennessee is not as prepared as UCLA in terms of pieces around him. That’s preposterous on its face.”

Whether or not money played a role in Nico Iamaleava’s decision, he’s officially a Bruin and Foster is seemingly happy with acquisition. After all, Iamaleava tallied 2,616 passing yards and 19 touchdowns while throwing five interceptions last season. He also recorded 358 yards and three scores in the ground game.

“You can’t just read everything on social media and come to a conclusion from that. You have to do a little bit more homework,” Foster said. “So I think we did a good job in vetting and figuring out what we wanted to do, and we were able to execute and now we’re here.”