KNOXVILLE — More than 100 players participated during Tennessee’s Orange & White spring football game Saturday inside a sun-splashed Neyland Stadium.
Yet it was the absent player who cast a figurative shadow over the annual April event and was the chief subject of coach Josh Heupel’s news conference afterward.
After failing to show up for Friday morning’s practice, redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava entered the NCAA transfer portal and is no longer in the program. The 6-foot-6, 220-pounder from Long Beach, California, had been seeking to enhance a name, image and likeness deal that was reported to be $8 million when he became the most touted signee of Tennessee’s 2023 class.
“Today’s landscape in college football is different from what it has been, and it’s unfortunate with the situation where we’re at with Nico,” Heupel said. “I want to thank him for everything he’s done since he got here, and that’s as a recruit to who he was as a player and how he competed inside of the building. Obviously we’re moving forward as a program without him.
“There is no one who is bigger than the Power T, and that includes me. This program has been around for a long time with a lot of great coaches and a lot of great players who came before and laid the cornerstone pieces and the legacy and the tradition that is Tennessee football.”
The triumvirate of Tennessee, Iamaleava and the NIL includes Iamaleava receiving the largest contract at that time, Tennessee’s state attorney general suing the NCAA over rules enforcement during the recruiting process that kept Iamaleava from potentially being ruled ineligible, and Iamaleava becoming the first big name to enter the portal after unsuccessfully holding out for more money.
It has been a relationship that has produced national headlines, with the past few days being no exception whatsoever.
“Nico Iamaleava is right to fight for every single penny he feels he deserves, and the University of Tennessee has every right to decide he isn’t worth it,” ESPN football analyst Ryan Clark, a former safety for LSU and in the NFL, said Saturday. “The problem is that former NCAA president Mark Emmert had a chance to protect them both from being in this position. The NCAA’s failure to do the one thing it was created to do shows why leadership matters.
“Don’t be mad at Nico or at Tennessee. Place the blame where it belongs, and that’s squarely on the greedy shoulders of the NCAA.”
Asked Saturday what he would change or would have changed about the current state of college athletics, Heupel said: “I feel like you guys have dinner plans and that we don’t have long enough to get through all the changes that I and probably most of the coaches would want to change about college football. It’s like game day. You’ve got to be ready to move on to the next play.”
Iamaleava compiled an 11-3 record as Tennessee’s starter and helped guide the Vols to last year’s run to the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. He completed 213 of 334 passes (63.8%) for 2,616 yards last season with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Stepping up now will be redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger, who only played last season in the 69-3 opening win over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the 71-0 victory over Kent State in mid-September, and early enrollee George MacIntyre, who starred at Brentwood Academy.
“I don’t think this changes anything, because I think I approach every day like I’m the starter,” Merklinger said. “I’m just going to keep working hard to be the best version of myself.”
Said MacIntyre: “I didn’t feel any added pressure today. Whatever amount of reps they were going to give me, I was going to do the best I could.”
MacIntyre quarterbacked the first drive of the scrimmage and threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to fellow freshman Radarious Jackson. He would also have a pair of short touchdown tosses to freshman tight end Jack Van Dorselaer, with the first of those scores set up by an 11-yard connection to former Baylor School standout Amari Jefferson, an offseason transfer from Alabama.
Jackson made an acrobatic catch to set up the second MacIntyre-to-Van Dorselaer score.
Merklinger spent more time facing Tennessee’s top defenders and was intercepted by safety Jakobe Thomas, but he also had a touchdown pass to Van Dorselaer.
“I thought they both did a really good job today for the most part,” Heupel said. “Merk had the one pick, but for the most part they handled the operation pretty well. They moved the football and made plays, and I thought they used their feet.
“Obviously they weren’t live and will have to learn how to protect themselves out in space, but it was a great day for both of them as young players being out in front of that crowd.”
The Vols practiced Wednesday and had Thursday off. Heupel knew he was moving on without his top quarterback Friday morning, “when he was a no-show, and you come off the practice field and there was no communication.”
Veteran tight end Miles Kitselman, who is nursing a pectoral injury, explained that he loved what he saw at Friday’s practice.
“I kind of gazed around to see if anybody was freaking out or gossiping over in the corner,” Kitselman said. “Nobody seemed to be, and I loved seeing that. It’s plug and play.”
Plug and play could mean Tennessee having a starting quarterback later this year not named Merklinger or MacIntyre. Heupel joked that there would be open tryouts right after the news conference but then said the Vols would have to “find another guy” due to the numbers at that position.
Heupel, who admitted he’s still had no contact with Iamaleava, was as loose and as forthcoming as any news conference since his hiring in January 2021.
“This program is built to win, and this program is ready to win in the fall,” Heupel said. “Since we’ve been here, we’ve won with a lot of different QBs, and we’ve done that historically in my career. Some have been older and some have been younger, but we’ll have a quarterback who is ready to win and will help us compete for a championship.
“If this is going to happen, then rip the Band-Aid. I’ve lost a quarterback before on the day we started training camp, and that group came together and ultimately won a conference championship that year. This is the greatest team game there is. The guys in our locker room are tough and competitive, and they care about each other.”
On the sideline
Several Vols were held out for various health reasons, with that list including five projected starters: receiver Chris Brazzell II, Kitselman, linebacker Arion Carter, and cornerbacks Rickey Gibson III and Jermod McCoy.
Redshirt freshman cornerback Marcus Goree Jr., who played at Bradley Central, and freshman running back Daune Morris, who played at Red Bank through his sophomore season, also didn’t play, while Jefferson competed in a yellow noncontact jersey.
Odds and ends
Heupel on the attention Iamaleava’s departure is receiving: “I haven’t paid attention to social media at this point, and I’m going to try and stay off of it for a little while, too.” … Among the former players who were recognized in front of the crowd during Saturday’s scrimmage were Josh Dobbs, Hendon Hooker, Eric Berry and Al Wilson.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.