What Mario Cristobal said on holdouts will make Wisconsin fans laugh at the hypocrisy

Miami's head coach, Mario Cristobal, was asked his thoughts on Nico Iamaleava's holdout, and he had some strong words to say about it all. He went so far as to say that it won't happen at Miami; that's not the culture. If Hurricanes players want to play that game, they can just leave, which is rich for a guy who swooped in on Wisconsin and stole a player in a workaround tampering game with Xavier Lucas.

Mario Cristobal reflects on the Nico Iamaleava situation and Wisconsin fans can only laugh

If you need a refresher on the whole Xavier Lucas situation, it's basically a player who signed a deal to stay with Wisconsin but then was recruited by Miami to transfer. So Lucas tried to get in the portal but was denied by Luke Fickell and staff because he was already committed in writing to the Badgers. So, Miami and an adjunct professor and practicing lawyer named Darren Heitner found another sleezy way to get him to Miami, but just unenrolling from Wisconsin and enrolling at Miami.

That situation hasn't even been fully worked out. It's a mess, and Mario Cristobal and staff are at the heart of it. Which is why it's impressive hypocrisy to act like your program is above board when it comes to holdouts and NIL situations. There's nothing about the Lucas to Miami situation that would suggest Cristobal is some sort of figurehead for appropriate relationships with NIL situations.

Lucas ultimately got a better deal to come play at Miami, which may end up being the case for Iamaleava and his departure from Tennessee. He may be getting a better deal. So if Cristobal is pretending on one hand with Lucas to be all player-focused and get the player in the right situation, he sure talked out of the other side of his mouth with Iamaleava.