The college football “trade” between Tennessee and UCLA officially reached its expected destination earlier this week when Tennessee named transfer Joey Aguilar its starting quarterback. Pundits across the sport will be closely tracking both signal callers this season due to the public nature of Tennessee and Iamaleava’s divorce.
But in a bit of irony, Aguilar and Iamaleava both have similar NIL deals. On3’s Pete Nakos did strong reporting on the NIL contracts of the top quarterbacks across the country Thursday with a number of the results being fascinating. Check out the full article here.
Perhaps the most interesting part was that both Iamaleava and Aguilar will make roughly $1.2 million this season as their respective schools. It’s a major pay cut for Iamaleava who was reportedly set to make between $2 and $2.5 million in his redshirt sophomore season in Knoxville before opting to explore his other options.
Reports about the reasons motivating Iamaleava’s departure from Tennessee varied with the former five-star quarterback’s camp claiming it was because of the lack of weapons around him at Tennessee. However, most reporting states that Iamaleava’s camp was looking for a larger NIL deal from Tennessee.
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Then when the Vols held strong and weren’t going to budge, Iamaleava no-showed Tennessee’s final spring practice before the Orange & White game. Once Iamaleava skipped practice without making contact with Tennessee’s coaches, there was never going to be a reconciliation between the two sides.
If money truly was the driving factor for Iamaleava’s departure from Tennessee then he clearly made a poor decision. While Aguilar and Iamaleava reportedly have similar contracts, the cost of living is 41% higher in Los Angeles than Knoxville according to Nerd Wallet. That doesn’t even take the significantly higher tax rates in California into account.
Iamaleava is coming off his first season as a starter, completing 64% of his passes for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. Tennessee went 10-3 (6-2 SEC) with Iamaleava at the helm and made it to the College Football Playoff while largely leaning on its strong defense and run game.
Aguilar spent his last two seasons as the starting quarterback at Appalachian State. After a strong 2023 season, Aguilar struggled in 2024 completing 56% of his passes for 3,003 yards, 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. The Antioch, California native landed at UCLA out of the transfer portal in the winter window before re-entering the portal after the Bruins added Iamaleava to their roster.
Tennessee opens up its 2025 season against Syracuse in Atlanta on Saturday, Aug. 30. UCLA gets its season underway on the same day, facing old Pac 12 foe Utah at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
