CORAL GABLES — While Miami and other teams played their spring games this weekend, the biggest news in the college football came out of Knoxville, Tennessee, where Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava has reportedly entered the transfer portal after trying to renegotiate a lucrative NIL deal.
Miami coach Mario Cristobal, who has embraced the transfer portal and NIL, said he would not tolerate similar actions at UM.
“We’re not going to do that at Miami, and I say that without any hesitation,” Cristobal said after UM’s spring game Saturday. “If anyone’s thinking that — and they could be the best player in the world — if they want to play hold out, they might as well play get out. We don’t want to do that, and we don’t want Miami to become that. Too many guys have sweat and bled and laid it on the line on that field to ever become that kind of program.”
Cristobal, who said earlier in the week that the reality is the transfer portal is “always open,” said that if a program allowed one player to hold the program hostage, it would lead to numerous players trying to get more money out of the team.
“It’s all open and everybody’s in it,” Cristobal said. “It all depends on what you’re willing to accept and where you’re going to draw the line in your program. You’ve got to realize something: Once you allow that to happen, and you agree to it, prepare for a line of 80 guys doing the same thing.”
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel had a similar outlook.
“I want to thank (Iamaleava) for everything that he’s done since he’s gotten here,” Heupel said Saturday. “Obviously, we’re moving forward as a program without him. There’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T, and that includes me.”
The spring transfer window officially opens on Wednesday, and Cristobal said he tries to make decisions that are the best for UM.
“I think you stay real and you stay true to the program,” Cristobal said. “You make the decisions that are best for the program.”
