Imagine a program coming off of a successful 6-2 run, standing at third spot in the SEC rankings after being in the first playoff round but the one thing that went viral about you is a player no longer in your locker room. That’s exactly what happened to Josh Heupel’s Volunteers and Nico Iamaleava. This is how the 72 hours that ended up being one of the first domino to fall in the NIL era looked like:

• April 10: Nico’s camp approached the Tennessee NIL collective, Spyre Sports Group for a maximum possible pay, doubling his $2M/ year NIL deal.
• April 11: The QB misses the team practice and meetings for the Orange and White Spring game, does not return calls, and later in the evening, applies for a transfer.
• April 12: Heupel announces the fallout with Iamaleava publicly.

Next, just a week later, Iamaleava announced his return to his native place and joining the UCLA Bruins. Now what’s interesting is that Nico moving to California kick started another series of exits from the Bruins. One of the three QBs to leave UCLA was their commit from December 2024, Joey Aguilar, who never even picked the ball for the Bruins. And in a twist that we could now possibly expect from this entire saga, Aguilar found his home in Knoxville when on April 29, he committed to Tennessee. With that, it turns out that Heupel has already moved on.

On April 30th, the Tennessee head coach made an appearance on the 104-5 The Zone podcast in Nashville. And obviously, Iamalaeva’s topic was bound to come up. The host stirred the pot with a hot question. “Obviously the Nico situation. I’m just curious from your point of view in today’s world of college football with all of the transitions and everything. How surprised were you with the way that all played out and that he’s no longer on that roster?”

Heupel replied, “Let’s start calling it the Joey Aguilar situation. At the end of the day, that’s just the landscape. You’re not going to keep everybody. Got opportunities to put your roster together. I feel like we got a team that’s accountable, connected, works hard, competes hard, and we’re built to win. Now we gotta earn it every single day. And we got some new pieces that got to get onboarded here in the course of May, that’s the nature of college football. So, we’ll get ready and keep competing.” 

When the entire off season drama started, little did Heupel know that he was going to exchange QBs with the Bruins. Aguilar, before transferring to UCLA in December, played over the last two seasons at Appalachian State. He threw for 6,760 yards and 56 touchdowns while completing 60.1% of his passes over 25 games. He had 3,003 yards and 23 touchdowns in 11 games in 2024 and 3,757 yards and 33 touchdowns in 14 games in 2023.

Heupel mentioned to Brent Hubbs of Volquest, “I’m excited about the guys that are in the room — highly competitive. They’re smart. There’s a lot of growth that goes in where we’re at as a position room and individually where they need to get to before we get to training camp.

“Joey (Aguilar), obviously, got to get him here and start the process of learning everything that we do, from fundamentals to scheme to what he’d see on the defensive side of the ball and matching all those things. Our young quarterbacks, Jake (Merklinger) and George (MacIntyre), are going to continue to grow in that process, as well.”

When other head coaches are already fired up at what Iamaleava did, Heupel’s security left him to slip into Finebaum’s good books.

It’s time for Josh Heupel to look forward and not back

Iamaleava certainly gave many schools several ideas. Whether it was them realizing the nature of the new NIL era or the students to understanding their worth, or the effect on coaches. Mario Cristobal bluntly addressed. “And I say that without any hesitation. If anyone is thinking that, they can be the best player in the world. If they wanna play holdout, they might as well play get out. Don’t want to do that, [and I] don’t want Miami to become that.”

Cut to Heupel; the head coach just called the situation “unfortunate.” In the postgame presser after their Spring game, he added, ““I want to thank him (Nico) for everything that he’s done since he’s gotten here. I said to the guys today, there’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T. And that includes me.” 

This calm demeanor did not go unnoticed. ESPN’s Finebaum is very confident in the job security of Tennessee coach Heupel. On the McElroy and Cubelic podcast, he stated, “In the interim, he is a hero. There’s no question on that conversation. Ultimately, every coach is graded in the same way, but we’ve seen in different situations …

“I guess I want to say it doesn’t really matter what the record is, and I’m going to say it really doesn’t matter what the record is this year, because Josh Heupel has earned the goodwill of that fan base and really of a lot of people.” Meanwhile, analysts predicted that the Vols belong to Tier 2 moving into this season, possibly making it to the playoffs but not win the Natty.

However, the narrative is likely to change now that Joey Aguilar is there. Josh Heupel’s new quarterback has already tapped into the mode of high energy. As he committed to Tennessee, he came up with a fiery message. “I’m looking forward to being a part of the traditions, the fans, and the legacy of winning at Tennessee. I’m ready to get to work, compete at the highest level and build something special with my teammates and coaches. I can’t wait to get to Rocky Top! I’m ready to Give My All for Tennessee.” Let’s hope missing Iamaleava becomes ancient history for the Vols.