Lane Kiffin Is Not Wrong About The Nico Iamaleava Situation, But The Supporting Cast Hasn’t Helped The Story

One week ago, the college football world was shocked to hear that former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava did not show up for the Vols' final practice before their spring game. As coaches from across the sport have been asked for their opinions on the matter, it was Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin that offered a different perspective. 

What transpired last week set off a chain of events that has led to both parties looking to get their sides of the story into the light. Whether fans want to agree or not, there are two sides to every story, even if the picture that's currently being painted favors Tennessee in this ordeal that has led to numerous opinions. 

For Nico Iamaleava, I think we can all agree that now showing up for practice and leaving your teammates on the field wondering where their leader was is probably not the best move the quarterback should've made at that moment. 

I don't know if the story surrounding the events would have been as dramatic for Nico if he showed up, participated in the spring game on Saturday, and then decided it was time to sit down at a table with Josh Heupel to explain why things weren't going to work out. But, in today's world where coaches can just leave on a random afternoon, and in some cases not even discuss the move with their former team, there is a side to this where we've seen a precedent, but just not in this fashion by a player. 

I'm also pretty confident in saying that there was some bad advice given to Nico Iamaleava about what should have happened on that Friday morning. 

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UCF head coach Josh Heupel, left, and Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin meet before the start of action at Spectrum Stadium in Orlando, Fla., on Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Lane Kiffin Makes A Point About The Reaction Towards Nico Iamaleva

Until we hear Nico's side, and not his father's or handler's, we will never know the full story, given we have no idea what's going through the mind of a 20-year-old young man who is being pulled in a different direction. 

For Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, I would imagine that was the point he was trying to make on Thursday evening when asked about the situation. Without all the facts of the story, which we will certainly never fully get, Kiffin mentioned that until we do know why it all transpired, maybe the shots at Nico should be tampered down a bit. 

"I’m not really going to comment much on that, because I don’t know all the details. And I think that, that happens a lot, with media, with fans, obviously, nowadays with how quickly things are put out or somebody says something from an unnamed source and all those things," Kiffin mentioned to reporters. And all these comments are made, in this instance, about a kid, and we don’t even have the facts to know if this stuff and the narrative out there’s even true. 

"So, I don’t think it’s really fair to take shots at him when all the facts and details of the situation aren’t out there and seem to just be more in favor of the program’s side, which we’re able to have a big voice as a program when a kid leaves or something because we have much more access to the media and controlling the message than the kids does. So, I don’t know the details in that, so I think it’s a little bit unfair what’s going on. Especially because I hear the other side, that those details that are out there are not accurate."

Once again, Lane Kiffin has a point. But, can we please stop characterizing this as a ‘holdout’. 

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This term is used way too often when talking about the situation surrounding Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee. When you are having dinner at your OC's house the night before, not bringing up any types of problems, or showing signs that something is wrong, it's not hard to understand why Nico's teammates were thrown off by him not showing up. 

But, making this sound like some type of ‘holdout’ is not doing any kind of justice to what the term actually means. When there are only nine hours between dinner at the coach's house and practice the next morning, that's a tough night for sleep, not a holdout. While social media were going bonkers trying to label the situation, it's not as if Iamaleava had gone radio silent before Friday morning. 

Do folks truly understand what holding out for more money entails? I would sure hope so, because I don't think the guide for following through with a ‘holdout’ has a section about making everything seem fine, when there's a grenade that's about to be launched the next morning. 

No, this was a decision made, most likely sped-up because of reporting, that could've been handled better. Was Nico at practice earlier in the week? Yes. Was Nico speaking with coaches during the week, along with teammates? Yes. Did the situation go haywire from around 10 p.m. Thursday night until Friday evening? Absolutely. 

So, what in the world are some folks doing when they discuss this as some type of bargaining tool like what’s used in the NFL when a player doesn't show up for OTA's because of contract negotiations? That's a holdout. This was nowhere near it. 

When asked during one of his final press conferences of the spring about how he would handle a potential ‘holdout’ situation, Lane Kiffin didn’t say it verbatim, but he made it clear that there are always two sides to every story. 

"Again, I’m not going to get into that too much because, I think that’s the narrative that’s out there of what happened," Kiffin noted. "And I’ll just say, I’ve talked to the other side of that, and Nico’s side, it’s a very different story of what happened. So I don’t think it’s fair to comment on that or to say that’s exactly what took place."

I think we are all looking forward to the day that Nico Iamaleava decides to tell his story. Hopefully, it's just him, the interviewer and the camera. Because there are only two main characters in this story, they are Josh Heupel and Iamaleava. 

The rest of this supporting cast haven't done a great job putting this entire story together.