Tennessee Vols fans hilariously try to pronounce Nico Iamaleava's last name

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Zach Ragan | Last updated Dec 28, 2023 1:08 PM ET

The Citrus Bowl between the Tennessee Vols and the Iowa Hawkeyes on New Year's Day will mark the official beginning of the Nico Iamaleava era for UT football.

Iamaleava, a true freshman quarterback, is a former five-star recruit who was rated as the No. 1 overall player in the 2023 class.

As the Nico era gets underway, it appears that some Vols fans need some help with learning how to correctly pronounce the California native's last name.

The Vol Club shared a video this week of Tennessee fans attempting to pronounce Nico's last name. And some of their attempts were absolutely hilarious (and nowhere close to being correct).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Volunteer Club (@thevolclub)

How to correctly pronounce Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava's last name

Nico's older brother hits on the correct pronunciation at the end of the video above, but just in case you didn't make it that far, here's the correct pronunciation from Nico himself.

Setting the record straight:

ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va @nico_iamaleava8 pic.twitter.com/UbmaY14TiL
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) December 21, 2022

That's ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va in case you need to put a note in your cell phone.

Hopefully Vols fans can get the pronunciation down so there isn't a repeat of multiple years of mispronouncing former Vol defensive back Alontae Taylor's first name or former UT quarterback Jarrett Guarantano's last name.

Tennessee and Iowa kick off at 1:00 PM ET on New Year's Day. Dave Fleming (play-by-play), Brock Osweiler (analyst) and Kayla Burton (sideline), the announcers for the Citrus Bowl, will probably want to rehearse the pronunciation of Nico's last name a few times before they go on air on Monday.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: