A little over three years ago, Nico Iamaleava committed to the Tennessee Vols, a decision that was celebrated loudly on Rocky Top.
Iamaleava, a five-star recruit at the time, was the first big commit of the Josh Heupel era. The California native was viewed as a future Heisman Trophy contender who could help deliver a national championship for the Vols.
Three years later, Iamaleava is no longer a Vol. After spending two seasons at Tennessee (including a redshirt season in 2023), news broke on the day of the Vols’ annual spring football game that Iamaleava is planning to enter the NCAA transfer portal this upcoming week when the spring window opens.
The news followed a report from On3’s Pete Nakos late last week, which stated that Iamaleava’s camp was negotiating a new NIL contract with Tennessee.
Iamaleava didn’t attend Tennessee’s practice on Friday in a move that reportedly came as a surprise to UT’s coaching staff.
It’s an ugly end for a partnership that began with such promise.
The Iamaleava/Tennessee era, however, wasn’t completely fruitless. In fact, some of the best moments in the last two decades of Tennessee football happened with Iamaleava under center. And that legacy is worth remembering fondly, regardless of the ugly separation between Iamaleava and UT.
Because here’s the thing — Iamaleava isn’t the villain here. You can blame whoever you want for this whole thing going sideways. You can blame Tennessee. You can blame Josh Heupel. You can blame Spyre Sports. You can blame Iamaleava’s agent. You can blame Iamaleava’s inner-circle. You can even blame other college football programs that stuck their nose in the wrong places. But don’t blame Iamaleava. This is a 20-year-old who is in a situation that very few people on the planet have ever been in (and take a look around at how the rest of those situations — young quarterbacks with extremely lucrative NIL deals — have gone….there aren’t many fairy tale endings that we’ve seen so far). This wasn’t an easy situation to navigate. And I don’t want to hear anyone saying, “well I would’ve done this and that”. The truth is that you have no idea what you would’ve done as a parent or as an athlete because you haven’t been in that situation. You don’t know the behind-the-scenes conversations, the promises that were made, or the anxiety of a big NIL decision. No one knows how they’d actually handle a particular situation until they’re living it.
It’s unfortunate that the whole situation unfolded the way it did. There’s no need to place blame because what’s done is done. The best thing that everyone involved can do is to learn from the situation and the mistakes that were made and move forward in a positive way. Any other reaction is a waste of time that accomplishes nothing but adding more drama and stress to a situation that no one is happy to be in right now.
As for Iamaleava’s legacy at Tennessee, there were some great things that the program accomplished during his time in Knoxville.
The Vols destroyed Iowa in the Citrus Bowl in Iamaleava’s first career start. In 2024, Tennessee earned one of the most important victories of the Heupel era when Iamaleava (aided by a strong effort from UT’s defense) guided the Vols to an emotional win against the Oklahoma Sooners (Heupel’s alma mater) in Norman. The Vols haven’t won many big games on the road during the Heupel era, which made the win against Oklahoma in prime time stand out even more last September.
In October, Iamaleava was the starting quarterback for Tennessee in wins against Florida and Alabama in back-to-back weeks. It was only the second time since 2004 that Tennessee beat Florida and Alabama in the same season. And it was just the Vols’ second win against Alabama since 2006.
Iamaleava threw one of the best passes of his career to give the Vols the lead against Alabama late in the fourth quarter.
That’s an iconic moment in the Alabama vs Tennessee rivalry. It deserves to be remembered fondly.
In the end, Iamaleava helped the Vols reach the College Football Playoff as a redshirt freshman. Sure, his play wasn’t perfect, nor did he put up eye-popping numbers. But if you’re going to criticize Iamaleava for his play last season, you have to criticize the poor protection (at times) from the offensive line and untimely drops from wide receivers, as well as Tennessee’s predictability on offense.
Iamaleava was one of just three SEC quarterbacks to play in the College Football Playoff last season. He may not have lit the world on fire with his numbers, but he didn’t lose Tennessee games and cost them a spot in the playoff, either (unlike Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, a potential first round draft pick who likely cost the Rebels a spot in the playoff with poor play in crunch time in losses to Kentucky and Florida).
If there’s a villain in this story, it isn’t Iamaleava. So maybe some of the adults, many of whom are fellow parents, that are having a good time this weekend poking fun at Iamaleava should have some grace for a young athlete that, at 20 years old, has to find a way to charge forward and make the best of a tough situation. Iamaleava has his whole life ahead of him. I know I’m rooting for him to be successful in life, wherever he goes from here.