Josh Heupel addresses how Tennessee roster handled Nico Iamaleava departure

On Saturday, fans across the country were shocked when Tennessee football announced it was moving on from quarterback Nico Iamaleava. However, fans weren’t the only ones caught by surprise. After Tennessee’s spring game on Saturday, Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel revealed how the team handled the stunning news.

“Our team needs to handle it with maturity too,” Heupel said. “These guys have an appreciation for Nico and what he’s done since he’d been here too, just like I said at the beginning of the press conference.

“At the end of the day, everybody in college football’s dealing with this as the portal opens up here this week. And at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility, our staff’s responsibility, to find 105 guys that are going to go give their all for Tennessee day in, day out and certainly on game day too, and we’ll do that.”

Iamaleava reportedly made $2.25 to $2.5 million dollars per year on his NIL deal with Tennessee. However, Iamaleava and his agent were seeking a deal worth $4 million a year, per ESPN’s Chris Low.

Iamaleava’s negotiations hadn’t affected his participation in team activities until Friday when he didn’t report to practice. Just 24 hours later, Tennessee announced Nico Iamaleava was no longer part of the program and the redshirt sophomore QB announced his plans to enter the transfer portal.

On Saturday, Josh Heupel said he hadn’t spoken to Iamaleava since the program had parted ways with him. Instead, Heupel emphasized his focus on the players who are still on the team.

“At the end of the day I just like this group. They’re really accountable, they show up,” Heupel said. “That’s in the building. Strength and conditioning, rehab, nutrition, football meetings, practice, all of that. But they do it right on the outside too; in class and who they are in the community.

“So it’s a really accountable group. We’ve recruited to that. It’s a group that, you know, like today was the next opportunity for them to go compete and you can tell that they care about each other and will continue to grow together.”

While Heupel likes his team, it also now has a massive hole at the center of its offense. Tennessee had two other QBs on its rosters besides Iamaleava: redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre. Now, Tennessee will either transform one of them into the team’s QB1, or search for a more experienced option in the transfer portal.