UPDATE 4/12: After this story was published, Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel informed the team Saturday morning that the Vols are moving forward without QB Nico Iamaleava.
Let me try to explain this is the simplest way possible, eliminating any pretense or pontificating.
A guy half the player of former Tennessee star quarterback Hendon Hooker is holding the Volunteers program hostage.
And now it’s time to cut him loose.
It’s time for Tennessee athletic director Danny White, one of the nation’s most proactive thinkers, to give coach Josh Heupel a contract extension to cut ties with quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who missed practice Friday while his representatives reportedly are trying to renegotiate his NIL deal.
Less than a week before the opening of the spring transfer portal.
Less than four months before the beginning of the 2025 season.
In other words, guess who have leverage? Guess who knows it, and is trying to force Tennessee to pay top dollar for a quarterback who in 2024 was barely among the upper half of the quarterbacks in the best conference in college football.
There’s change on the horizon, all right. But not what you think.
This is the moment coaches and athletic directors and university presidents have been pointing to for the last four years. The one inflection point – in the middle of a tidal wave of change in college athletics since 2021 – that could redirect momentum.
White and Heupel should publicly stand together and declare no player will hold a program hostage. Not now, not ever.
The storied program of Gen. Neyland and Johnny Drum and Peyton and I Will Give My All For Tennessee Today won’t stand for this crap. And won’t give another penny to Iamaleava.
Or any other player, now or in the future, who pulls these 11th-hour hijinks.
If universities are so desperate to reset the transfer portal and NIL market as they nauseatingly claim on a weekly basis, they’ll start taking stands against the money grab. I’m not saying collective stands because, as we all know, that’s illegal coercion.
But one prominent stance leads to another, and is followed by a few more and the next thing you know, the next Iamaleava who knows he has leverage will think twice before taking big swings. Momentum is a strange thing; it fills vacuums when least expected.
And this is a gigantic blind spot.
How else can you explain Iamaleava, who struggled with accuracy on second- and third-level throws in 2024, believing his deal should be reworked?
A quarterback who was 76th in the nation in passing yards per game (201.2) and 43rd in completion percentage (63.8), who threw five first-down interceptions, wanted more money. Not that he deserved more money, because the numbers simply don’t bear it out.
Someone(s) convinced Iamaleava that it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Tennessee’s quarterback room, which consists of Iamaleava and not much else. At least not yet.
The collection of dolts who moved Iamaleava toward this reckless decision clearly don’t understand a locker room dynamic. This isn’t the NFL, where players know it’s not about your teammate’s wallet.
This is virgin territory in college football, where there’s still a drastic difference in the amount of NIL money paid out, player by player. There’s still resentment and egos.
There’s also still one undeniable reality in any locker room, with any sport: players know the difference between genuine and fake. They know who deserves respect, and who’s begging for it.
Guess which one Iamaleava is?
Now it’s time to cut him loose, and take a stand. Time to reclaim momentum in the seemingly never-ending battle over revenue and resources. Over – here’s the key – power.
Because even if Iamaleava leaves Tennessee, you better believe there will be a line of teams trying to sign him. And someone, more than likely, will pay what he wants (hello, Southern California).
But it’s the principle that matters now. It’s the line in the sand that some program, at some point, has to draw.
Cut Iamaleava loose, sign a quarterback from the spring portal and watch the team rally around him. Better yet, do a straight swap with Southern Cal: Iamaleava for Jayden Maiava.
Then watch it all unfold.
The season, and a new-found change of momentum for schools and programs.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
