Things really didn't have to end this way for quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Not even that long ago, he was projected to be one of the top quarterbacks in the SEC in 2025. Now, however, his career with Tennessee football has already come to an end.
Things moved quickly here, with everything wrapping up on Saturday morning when Pete Thamel broke the news that Josh Heupel informed the team in a meeting that the Vols have decided to move on and that Iamaleava will be entering the transfer portal when things open up on April 16.
That doesn't tell the whole story. Iamaleava went radio silent on Friday. According to ESPN's Chris Low, Iamaleava finally spoke with offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle late Friday night to let him know that he was going to be transferring. Per Low, this came after Heupel tried several times to connect with Nico and his reps:
Iamaleava notified Tennessee OC Joey Halzle late Friday night he had completed his paperwork and was entering the portal next week, sources told ESPN. This after Josh Heupel and multiple staffers had tried to reach Iamaleava and/or his reps to no avail for a day and a half https://t.co/DqYJ0DHheg
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) April 12, 2025
Josh Heupel is surely disappointed with how Nico Iamaleava handled things
We don't want to go after Iamaleava, but this really is not a great look for him. This all came down to money. Iamaleava was looking for around $4 million in NIL dough per year, upped from the more than $2 million he's already taking home.
With contract negotiations going south, it opened the door for Iamaleava to rethink his future on Rocky Top. This all happened right before the Vols spring game too. Nico's reps might have thought they'd have some leverage here, but Heupel stood his ground and he's not letting a single player be more important than the entire program.
For now, Jake Merklinger will be the new starting signal-caller, but you've got to figure Heupel will be ready to attack the spring portal himself if another big-name quarterback decides to transfer. Iamaleava will be ready to join a different squad soon, but Vols fans are going to be quite disappointed in him for a while thanks to how everything went down here. His team could have handled things far differently.