Once a five-star quarterback prospect that rode private planes and watched his then-teenaged price rise to the tune of multiple millions of US dollars per playing year, Nico Iamaleava grew up and told Tennessee that it wasn’t enough after two seasons (and a spring).
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava‘s time with Tennessee football is over.
On Saturday morning, coach Josh Heupel informed the team that the Vols are moving forward without Iamaleava, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Knox News. The source requested anonymity because Heupel has not addressed the matter publicly.
A UT football spokesperson confirmed that Iamaleava will not attend UT’s Orange and White Spring Game on Saturday (2 p.m. ET) at Neyland Stadium. Heupel will address the situation following the game.
The transfer portal opens on April 16. Iamaleava, UT’s one-time blue-chip quarterback, is expected to enter it following what appeared to be a holdout. Iamaleava sought a renegotiation to his NIL deal, which reportedly paid him more than $2 million per year. And then he missed UT’s final practice of spring on Friday.
It’s a shocking end to the Vols’ three-year marriage to Iamaleava that began with a blockbuster NIL deal, survived an NCAA investigation and concluded with an underwhelming debut season as the starter.
Iamaleava, the five-star recruiting gem, signed an NIL contract in March 2022 that could’ve paid him more than $8 million by the end of his third year at UT. ESPN’s Chris Low, citing sources, reported that Iamaleava’s representatives wanted his NIL pay increased to $4 million per year, using the possibility of him entering the portal as leverage.
Now Iamaleava can test that market.
It’d be one thing if Iamaleava left Tennessee during the 5-day transfer window after his team was eliminated from the 12-team playoff, but all of this is happening as Tennessee, and the quarterback, wrap up their springs with question marks of what’s to come this fall. I’m sure the 20-year-old has some answers to to his future that just aren’t made public yet, but that’s still a lot of dough to all of a sudden be divorced from.
I don’t care to say whether or not he should get the $2M to $4M per year raise that he wants because it’s only a matter of time before guys like him — very promising athletes out of high school that still have a ways to go before they’re All-SEC levels of good — end up making that kind of money whether they were the #2 recruit in the nation or not.
No, Nico didn’t play like Vols fans probably would’ve hoped, but the team still reached a 10-3 record in 2024 with a playoff appearance as the #7 seed (lost 42-17 in Columbus). He had 2,930 pass yards, completed 63.6% of his passes, had 21 TD to 5 INT. As the full-season starter in 2024, Iamaleava had at least 20 completed passes in just three games. Against Ohio State in the playoff, he was 14 of 31 for 104 yards with no throwing scores. He did have a 2-yard rushing score right before halftime, though.
It’s the beauty of commerce: Nico can get paid like a rockstar before ever taking part in college practices, then one day he can turn around and ask to be paid like a mid-first round draft pick. Does it matter if he has a little Dan Orlovsky in him? Not at all, because the market has already accepted that he’s always going to be able to wear that 5-star tag of his from high school, and there’s always going to be hope that there’s more 5-star in him than Dan Orlovsky.
The Purple Album 