One of the wildest stories to come out of the NIL and Transfer Portal era took place this offseason as Tennessee Quarterback Nico Iamaleava entered the transfer portal after the player and he team disagreed on his NIL value. The move sent shockwaves through College Football as the starting quarterback on a Playoff team was leaving in a stunning turn of events.
The entire saga was fascinating as rumors first surfaced before Iamaleava held out of practice which ended his time in Knoxville. While the coaches got to speak on the saga it's always more interesting to hear what his teammates have to say.
At SEC Media Days, Tennessee tight end Miles Kitselman spoke on how the team responded in their group chats during the stunning series of events.
"We had group texts with a couple of the guys and whenever some stuff was going around, we all came together and said, ‘Hey, man, we want somebody that wants to be here.' I talked about it earlier, it’s next snap, next play, don’t worry about what happened before and that can translate over into life. That can translate over into that situation, to where it’s, ‘If you don’t want to be here, that’s fine. We’re going to go find somebody who does, and he’s going to come in and compete and want to be here.'"Miles Kitselman
Given how the entire series of events played out, Tennessee's players have a bigger gripe than the coaching staff as they're now put in a terrible situation. The gripe from Iamaleava's camp reportedly dated back to the end of the season yet, they never resolved it during the Winter. While the players can be mad at the team for not striking a deal, the same blame can be placed on Iamaleava as he waited until the end of Spring practice to make a move.
Regardless of whether you take Nico Iamaleava's side or the schools side, a potential National Championship contender was derailed because of NIL. The Volunteers quickly found a quarterback who wanted to be there in UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar who will have a gripe with the former Tennessee star as he stole Aguilar's job.
How Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee each fare will be one of the biggest storylines of the season and it'll be hard not to judge who won and lost the saga.