re: Nico Iamaleava Update: Cowherd says it's UCLA. Confirmed by The Athletic

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His looney tunes father is going to screw this up. Bet on it.

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Helicopter parents are the fricking worst.

Oh I agree 1000%. I was just spitballing about a hypothetical scenario where the greedy dad isn’t overplaying his hand.

The sad part about this entire thing is, if the Iamaleavas had come to the table in an honest, straightforward fashion, I have zero doubt Tennessee would’ve bumped Nico’s pay without hesitation. They have invested so much time and effort into this kid dating back to 2022 and the original NIL deal either had just expired or was set to expire soon. All parties involved knew a new deal would have to come before the season.

Instead, the dad and handler started working back channels trying to drum up some ridiculous market, while giving zero indication to Tennessee that Nico was even looking around, and once they assumed they had multiple giant offers in their back pocket, here comes Big Nic making ridiculous demands and telling Nico not to go to practice. I don’t blame Heupel one bit for washing his hands of the entire situation after that.

Just a terrible way to approach business every step of the way

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NEW: Urban Meyer on Nico Iamaleava's departure:

“Tennessee is screwed. They got a problem.

...Everybody’s saying, ‘Nice job Tennessee, making a stand.’ I’ve got a little comment on that. Tennessee plays Florida usually every year in October.

Can you imagine that game’s going the other way and coach Heupel grabs the microphone and stands on the 50-yard line in Neyland Stadium and says, ‘It’s OK, I made a stand way back when.'”

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You'd think after all Urban Meyer's BS has come out that he'd learn to STFU. Coach Urban Meyer is probably not the best source on how to deal with players or consequences for stupid/bad actions.

Percy Harvin Reportedly 'Epitomized' Culture Urban Meyer Created At Florida

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At one point during Harvin's time at Florida, he apparently refused to do conditioning drills with the rest of the team and was involved in an altercation with wide receiver's coach Billy Gonzalez, during which Harvin took Gonzalez by the neck and tossed him to the ground.

Harvin was supposedly never disciplined for those actions. When Harvin missed a game in 2008 due to an allegedly failed drug test, Meyer explained it away as an injury, arguably 'creating a divide between the haves and have-nots on the team.'

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From champs to chomped: How Urban Meyer broke Florida football

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Now those issues have surfaced for all to see. Left in the wake of Meyer's resignation were problems that can destroy a coaching career: drug use among players, a philosophy of preferential treatment for certain players, a sense of entitlement among all players and roster management by scholarship manipulation.

The coach who holds himself above the seedy underbelly of the game; who as an ESPN television analyst in 2011 publicly berated the ills of college football; left a program mired in the very things he has criticized.
. . . .
. . . In the season opener against Hawaii, Meyer said a few elite players (including wideout Percy Harvin, linebacker Brandon Spikes and tight end Aaron Hernandez) would miss the game with injuries. According to multiple sources, the three players--all critical factors in Florida's rise under Meyer--failed drug tests for marijuana and were sitting out as part of standard university punishment.
. . .
"They were running with us on the first team all week in practice," one former player said. "The next thing you know, they're on the sidelines with a (walking) boot for the season opener like they were injured. Of course players see that and respond to it."

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Ohio State's culture of cover-up helped save Urban Meyer's job

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On the morning of Aug. 1, a bombshell story broke suggesting that Urban Meyer had lied about not knowing of a 2015 domestic abuse allegation against former Ohio State assistant coach Zach Smith.

Minutes later, Meyer met with football staffer Brian Voltolini. Their first inclination, per the school’s investigation, was to figure out how to delete text messages from Meyer’s phone.

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The problem is when Gene Smith and Meyer were meeting about Zach Smith, Meyer knew this wasn’t the first time Zach had been accused of domestic violence. In 2009, while working for Meyer at the University of Florida, Zach was arrested for assaulting Courtney. Charges were eventually dropped but this is certainly an important detail to share.

Except Meyer didn’t share it with Gene Smith. Not when he hired Zach Smith in 2012 and, more incredibly, not when the two were discussing what to do with Zach Smith in 2015. This should have been one of the first things mentioned … “Gene, you should know …”

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Here’s another chilling one. Meyer said that just after the 2009 arrest, he met with both Zach and Courtney Smith in his office at UF. It was then they told him “the arrest of Zach Smith had been based on incorrect information provided to authorities by Courtney Smith and that, in fact, Zach Smith had not hit or otherwise been violent towards Mrs. Smith.”

This would be a major admission by Courtney Smith. She was saying that she falsely accused her husband of a despicable act. That alone is a crime in many jurisdictions. The problem is, Courtney told investigators that she never once met with Zach and Urban Meyer. Worse for Urban, Zach Smith backs that up and says that only he was at the meeting. It’s worth noting, the Smiths’ relationship is beyond toxic right now (and has been for years) and perhaps the only thing they agree on is that Meyer’s story is false.

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At the news conference, it was noted that Meyer’s words were clearly wrong at Big Ten media day, where he repeatedly said he had no knowledge of 2015 allegations against Zach Smith, but even then, an explanation of sorts was offered.

“While those denials were plainly not accurate, coach Meyer did not in our view deliberately lie,” investigator Mary Jo White said.

OK, then.

At one point the report states, “We also learned during the investigation that Coach Meyer has sometimes had significant memory issues in other situations where he had prior extensive knowledge of events. He has also periodically taken medicine that can negatively impair his memory, concentration and focus.”

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And finally, no Coach Urban Meyer retrospective isn't finished without his Joey Freshwater moment:

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Imagine being so obsessed with someone.

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It took like 12 minutes to copy and paste everything. It should have been posted around 3:30 but I got called away.

There's honestly so much online about the stuff he's been involved with over the years.

The hardest part was finding the Urban Meyer bar video.

Now, am I obsessed? I would say no.

But I do intensely dislike him and think he might have ASPD. People should take Meyer's insights on players and consequences as much as someone should follow Rick Pitino's insights on living a monogamous life.

I keep saying Daddy is going to mess this up.

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"If Iamaleava’s deal with UCLA gets done, it won’t be close to the $4 million his camp was asking for from Tennessee. Talks ramping up."

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So, it is about the money.

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I keep saying Daddy is going to mess this up.

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You keep saying what everyone is saying? Impressive. Here is your internet attention.

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Reports trickling out that UCLA is not a done deal.

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Where are you seeing this?

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Damn. Eric bienemy. He would have thrived with Nico as QB. Poor guy just can’t catch a break.

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Bienemy was fired in December