"Pageant mom has become quarterback dad": Colin Cowherd questions Nico Iamaleava's decision to choose UCLA over Tennessee

Former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava and Vols coach Josh Heupel have both shown maturity in handling Iamaleava’s April transfer. At Big Ten Media Days, Iamaleava avoided any negative comments about Tennessee, and Heupel also told reporters at SEC Media Days that he still has a lot of love for his former QB1.

However, football analyst Colin Cowherd criticized Iamaleava’s choice to leave Tennessee during Monday’s episode of "The Joel Klatt Show."

"Pageant mom has become quarterback dad," Cowherd said (30:40). "Like it's the same thing. like you're squeezing so hard, you're hurting your kid, right? You're it's it's just it's offbalance. It's the parent getting too close. He shouldn't have left Tennessee.

"They have better players. You're going to face more NFL bodies maybe in that schedule compared to UCLA's this year. But he is good and he is kind of what the NFL is looking for."

Iamaleava is set to start for UCLA in its 2025 opener against Utah this Saturday. However, his week got off to a rough start as he was left off ESPN’s Top 100 players list, which featured 17 quarterbacks. Even Cowherd admitted he is not confident in Iamaleava’s success with the Bruins.

"I don't think he's going to win a lot of games at UCLA," Cowherd said. "But if he hits, that's an NFL quarterback."

UCLA is now in its second season under head coach DeShaun Foster and is coming off a 5-7 finish in 2024, while Tennessee ended last season with a 10-3 record.

Joel Klatt provides his take on Nico Iamaleava's Tennessee departure

Nico Iamaleava was reportedly pushing for a reworked deal at Tennessee that would have netted the quarterback around $4 million for the 2025 season. When no agreement was reached, his departure from the Vols soon followed.

But according to college football analyst Joel Klatt, finances weren’t the deciding factor. Instead, Klatt points to football development as the key reason behind Iamaleava’s decision to transfer to UCLA, where he is expected to earn just under $2 million in 2025.

"He wanted the offense to grow with him," Klatt said (via Fox Sports). "That offense that Josh Heupel runs is almost like a glorified high school offense, and the reason that it doesn't develop a quarterback is because everything is a half-field read. Nico understood that.

"They wanted the offense to expand and to grow and to develop, and when it didn't do that through spring football, that's when he was like, ‘I don’t know if this is the right place for me.'"

Iamaleava was listed on the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Watch List this week. Over his two seasons with Tennessee, he recorded 2,616 passing yards and 19 touchdowns, along with 358 rushing yards and three more scores.