ATLANTA — The immediate aftermath of quarterback Nico Iamaleava‘s dysfunctional exit from Tennessee‘s program in the spring was hectic, according to his former teammates, but they quickly moved on and haven’t looked back.
“If anybody is sweeping us under the rug and thinks we’re going to be mediocre just because we lost Nico, that’s cool. Let ’em think that way,” redshirt senior defensive lineman Bryson Eason told ESPN on Tuesday. “There’s more than one person on the field, you know what I’m saying?”
Iamaleava was a no-show for Tennessee’s final spring practice in April and then missed the spring game after Tennessee declined to increase his multi-million-dollar NIL deal. The morning of the spring game, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel told the players that that program was moving on without Iamaleava, who wound up transferring to UCLA.
If anything, the way the whole saga went down made the team even closer, said senior tight end Miles Kitselman.
“Yeah, for sure,” Kitselman said. “As a ballplayer, it’s next play. Whatever happened the last play, it doesn’t matter. Let’s go make a play right now, and I think that totally translates over to life and translates over to that situation. It was like, ‘OK, he’s gone. It is what it is. Let’s plug and replace. Who are we going to bring in?’
“Nobody’s bigger than the T, and if they don’t want to be here, that’s awesome because we’re going to bring somebody in that does want to be here.”
Heupel repeated “moved on” a couple of times Tuesday when the subject of Iamaleava’s departure was broached. But he made it clear that nobody’s expectations within the Tennessee football building had changed just because Iamaleava is now playing quarterback at UCLA.
“[The media’s] expectations certainly changed. Ours did not,” Heupel said. “I think how you work can either give you a hope, a belief or an expectation to actually go make that happen, and our guys expect to win.”
Kitselman was even bolder and said, “Without a doubt, we have a great opportunity to go win this whole thing.”
He then added: “I just love it how we truly do have this chip on our shoulder and that there’s not a whole lot of spotlight on us right now. There’s a lot of people that don’t expect anything out of us, and I absolutely love that you guys [the media] are going to look up at midseason and go, ‘Tennessee is 7-0. They’re doing it.'”
Heupel smiled when told of Kitselman’s comments but wasn’t about to distance himself from his tight end’s confidence.
“We’re going to take it one at a time,” Heupel said. “Do I share it? Absolutely. I wouldn’t verbalize it that exact way. It’s been a long time since I lined up and didn’t think we were going to win the football game.”
With Joey Aguilar transferring in from UCLA (and formerly Appalachian State) in May, Heupel said it would be a legitimate competition at quarterback in preseason camp among Aguilar, redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre.
“Ultimately somebody’s got to go earn it and take the job, and I think it’s important that your team sees that, too,” Heupel said. “So in all the quarterback battles that I’ve had as a coach, I think when you communicate with all of them clearly and consistently, it breeds a sense of they know exactly what it is. There are no hidden agendas.”
Heupel said Aguilar, who was a two-year starter at Appalachian State before transferring to UCLA, has been able to make up ground with his new teammates in a short period of time.
“He’s a smart kid that’s going to work at it,” Heupel said. “He’s willing to come back and do extra. He understands the experiential learning, how he learns best and some of the things outside of just sitting in the meeting room that are beneficial to him as well.”
The Vols went to the College Football Playoff for the first time last season and were routed by eventual national champion Ohio State 42-17 in the first round.
“It showed the barrier that we’ve got to break through,” junior linebacker Arion Carter said. “We’d shown that we belong on that stage, that we’d done enough to get there. Now it’s time to push past that.”
Eason said nobody on Rocky Top would be truly satisfied until there’s another banner in the Vols’ football facility.
“Well, two banners, an SEC championship banner and national championship banner,” Eason said. “We’re itching for those bad.”
The Vols have made major strides under Heupel since he took over in 2021. They’ve beaten Alabama two of the past three seasons and Florida two of the past three seasons. Prior to Heupel’s arrival, Tennessee had lost 14 in a row to Alabama and 15 of the previous 16 to Florida.
But the next step figures to be the steepest of all.
“I think sometimes yards or feet are easier to gain than inches, but we’re certainly capable of taking those steps too,” Heupel said.
Either way, nobody on Tennessee’s team is interested in rehashing everything that happened with the Iamaleava situation in the spring, or as Heupel said this summer on a 104.5 The Zone radio show in Nashville, the “Joey Aguilar situation.”
In fact, Kitselman said the quarterbacks on the roster now are pushing each other even more and very vocal.
“I love that. I feel like that was something missing last year,” Kitselman said. “They’re great leaders and they’re not afraid to call people out, and that instills competitiveness.”
Kitselman, asked if he had talked to Iamaleava since he left, responded with a terse “No.”
Then glancing around the table at a few media members, he smiled and said, “Are we good?”
