By Chris Marler
Tennessee will need a new quarterback for Saturday’s spring game. More importantly, they’ll need a new quarterback for the 2025 season.
This is due to one of the wildest 48 hours we’ve seen in the offseason NIL era.
What started as speculation and reported to be rumors, turned out to be true and now Josh Heupel and Nico Iamaleava, the Tennessee starter who led the Vols to the College Football Playoff a season ago, will part ways.
Where do you even begin with this story?
With the initial whispers before they became roars reported by On3’s Pete Nakos on Thursday? With the tweet from Iamaleava’s dad calling Nakos a b**** for spreading false rumors on Friday? Or with the ashes falling all around what turned out to be a clearly volatile and explosive situation that sent shockwaves through the college football world on Saturday?
Like Hillary Duff said, “Let’s go back to the beginning.” Let’s start with what we know.
Nico first signed with Tennessee out of high school and received what was reported to be an $8 million deal over a set number of years. According to Trey Wallace of Outkick, he was set to make $2.4 million this year. However, after the season and during the first transfer portal window in December, it was rumored that Nico’s “team” was shopping him around to other schools, specifically Miami. The extent of how true those rumors are is unclear, but what is clear is that a new agreement was never reached between Nico and Tennessee’s collective.
This is where things get a little murky and a little icky, as my three year old niece would say.
The end result of this catastrophe is being labeled and blamed for all that’s wrong with the current state of college football. However, that’s where the casual fan and traditionalists are somewhat wrong.
This feels much more like a “several things can be true at the same time” moment rather than pin the blame on the greed of a 20-year-old moment.
Tennessee knew what they were getting into when they recruited Iamaleava three years ago. Tennessee offered $8 million to a five star recruit on the other side of the country in a year where there were four other five star quarterbacks. They sat him for a year behind Joe Milton. Then, they made him their starter and watched him play 13 games of underwhelming football.
Nico finished the 2024 season with 19 passing touchdowns. However, 12 of those were against Chattanooga, Kent State, UTEP, and Vanderbilt. By all means it’s understandable to see why Tennessee was more than hesitant to renegotiate a contract for even more money on a quarterback who not only didn’t get Tennessee to the promised land.
It’s easy to see Tennessee’s stance in this whole debacle. However, this situation also doesn’t simply boil down to Nico Iamaleava being greedy. We watch college coaches move on to more money all the time. We regularly celebrate people “getting the bag.”
Personally, I don’t think Tennessee should’ve been pressured into renegotiating a deal that already felt lopsided. But do I get it? Absolutely. And is it really greedy when you’ve already set the precedent with this player by giving him $8 million? Not at all.
We don’t have to agree with it, but that doesn’t make it wrong.
With the upcoming revenue share change starting in July, NCAA programs are flush with cash. And no matter how many reasons or numbers we throw out for why Tennessee shouldn’t pay Iamaleava more, you and I both know—another program absolutely will.
That is the real issue with college sports right now. It’s not the greed of athletes. It’s knowing that those demands will inevitably be met.
The NIL era was a godsend for a program like Tennessee. A success starved fanbase and pool of boosters with deep pockets and an undeniable and unrivaled drive to win. The ability to pay more than their competitors was always going to be a benefit to dormant blue blood programs looking to get back to their winning ways. It’s why you’ve seen places like Tennessee, Texas, Nebraska, and Miami all be able to outspend others. But, as is the case with most things, the NIL era giveth and now the NIL era taketh away.
The good news for Tennessee?
This is a momentary issue. Yes, there are real issues with the timing of this happening a day before the spring game, four days before the transfer portal window opens, and four and a half months before the season starts. Much like LSU got caught in the NIL “greed” narrative and became a social media punchline after losing Bryce Underwood, now it’s Josh Heupel and Tennessee’s turn in the spotlight.
Now, Tennessee has roughly $2.5 million of additional funds to spend in the portal. They also find themselves 2.5 months out from the revenue share drop that will give schools $20.5 million to spend on student-athletes. Those are all things that have recently changed for Tennessee.
What hasn’t changed? The thirst from deep pocketed boosters who want to win and want to win now.
So, get your jokes out now because it’s not like Tennessee is going to fold up shop and give up on next season. If anything, this debacle is just more of the motivation they need to find the right guy, to find their guy, and to find a way back to being the championship program they used to be.
