Kirby Smart reacts to Nico Iamaleava standoff with Tennessee, departure

This weekend’s stunning divorce between former starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee sent shockwaves throughout the college football world. That included in Athens, Ga., where Georgia head coach Kirby Smart — the dean of SEC head footblal coaches — was asked about the drama taking place four hours north in Knoxville, Tenn.

Not that Smart was able or willing to expound on it much.

“I don’t know enough about that situation to fairly comment on it,” Smart said Saturday following Georgia’s G-Day Spring game. “I mean, I basically know what (has been reported in the media), and then you don’t know what’s real, what’s being reported, what’s being leaked. What are the reasons for all of it?

“I worry about my house, and I try to control what goes on in my house. I can’t worry about everyone else’s house,” Smart continued. “So the climate is, is, is uh … different. But again, I’m focused on the kids that we’ve got that want to be here.”

Iamaleava, a former 2023 five-star signee out of Long Beach, Calif., is expected to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal when the Spring portal window opens Wednedsay, April 16, after NIL negotiations broke down between his representatives and Tennessee officials late last week. That failed negotiation led Iamaleava to skip out on the Volunteers’ final Spring practice Friday, and the two sides opted to part ways late Friday, one day before Tennessee’s Orange-White Spring game Saturday.

Ryan Puglisi believes he is prepared to be Georgia’s starting quarterback

Now that Carson Beck is officially soaking up the sun down in Miami, the quest to replace him as the next starting Georgia next quarterback is in full swing back in Athens. It’s a two-man race.

Gunner Stockton, last season’s backup who was thrown into the fire after Beck’s season-ending elbow injury in the SEC Championship game, made his first career start in Georgia’s College Football Playoff game against Notre Dame last December. Given that experience, Stockton is the clear, early frontrunner to be named the Bulldogs’ QB1 in 2025.

But that decision has yet to be made. And, for redshirt freshman Ryan Puglisi, it’s opened the door for the former four-star QB to imagine himself running out of the tunnel as the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback.

“I definitely think I can, I could (be UGA’s starting quarterback) right now, definitely,” Puglisi said Tuesday. “I think if you’re at the quarterback position and you don’t believe that you could play, you should probably do something else, because you need some confidence.”

Puglisi’s confidence aside, Stockton has maintained a solid grip on the majority of the first-team reps at QB throughout spring practice, according to DawgsHQ’s Jeremy Johnson. But that hasn’t deterred Puglisi in the least.

“At Georgia, no matter who you are, no matter where you are on the depth chart, you’re always going to compete,” Puglisi said. “I think you’re competing with yourself everyday as well, just trying to be better than you were yesterday. Putting your head down and going to work every single day no matter where you are on the depth chart.”