Paul Finebaum reacts to Nico Iamaleava leaving Tennessee, impact on Vols' 2025 outlook

Nico Iamaleava‘s departure from the Tennessee football program leaves the Volunteers to fill a sizeable void under center. Having led Tennessee to the College Football Playoff this past season, all signs until this past week pointed toward the two parties reuniting in 2025 and even potentially contending for the SEC.

This will not be the case, and Iamaleava is set to enter the transfer portal when it opens next week. Paul Finebaum has since touched on how this will impact Tennessee’s success this fall, and which options they have under center as of this report.

“This is a body blow to Tennessee, which was already on the so-called cut line,” Finebaum said during an appearance on SportsCenter on Saturday after the news broke. “They have Jake Merklinger, who is serviceable. He played a couple of games last year, but they don’t really have many options. They may go into the portal themselves. They just lost a quarterback to the portal. They may try to get him back, but, ultimately, I think what this is going to do for Josh Heupel is buy him a little bit of time.

“The fact that they said no to Nico, I think, will give him a lot of support. He’s already gone to the playoffs. He beat Florida and Alabama last year. He’s in very good shape, but if this season does not go well, I think Tennessee fans will look at that and go, ‘Okay, at least you did the right thing.'”

Gaston Moore is the quarterback Finebaum mentioned. He was on the Tennessee roster for four seasons beginning in 2021, and entered the transfer portal for his final season of eilgibility earlier this offseason.

For Merklinger, he’s inexperienced having arrived on campus last offseason. However, he was a four-star recruit in the 2024 class, per the On3 Industry Rankings, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. The Georgia native was the No. 201 overall recruit, and No. 12 QB in his cycle.

It remains to be seen if this shoehorns Merklinger into a potential starting role. Or, if Tennessee will dip its toes into the transfer portal to find a veteran QB for a year or two while the Vols recruit its next blue-chip prospect.

For now, the shocking and unprecedented developments in Knoxville over the last few days has once again reshaped how NIL and the transfer portal impact the college athletics world. Now, Iamaleava is off to find a new home in the transfer portal, while the Volunteers begin its own search for a new QB1.