Tennessee looks forward, forgives QB lost to portal

In a transfer portal plot gone wrong, Nico Iamaleava was not with the Tennessee Volunteers at SEC Media Days on Tuesday in Atlanta and head coach Josh Heupel flushed the majority of his thoughts on the matter — for the most part.
Heupel and Tennessee reloaded since the apparent negotiating ploy by Iamaleava was flipped into a farewell letter by the Vols. And at the end of the day, as Heupel says, the Vols are just fine with the way it turned out.
“Ultimately at the end of the day, it’s never about who’s not in your building but about who is in your building. For us, you can lose a quarterback at a lot of different times: December transfer portal, spring transfer portal. You can lose one week 1, first quarter of the ballgame in your opener, and now you’re on to number two through injury, right? You’ve got to have the next-man-up mentality,” Heupel said Tuesday.
“At the end of the day, having guys that want to compete along with their brothers inside of that locker room, building that connection, but also having the right guys in there. At the end of the day, I’m really excited about who we have in there. The addition of Joey to who’s already inside of that group, highly competitive guys that are smart, that have the physical traits to be successful. Teammates have grown to have great trust in those guys through the course of this off-season during the summer, and now it’s about getting to training camp and going and competing. Somebody is going to earn the opportunity to be our starting quarterback through that process.”
Heupel said expectations are unchanged even if his quarterback will be different. He also admitted losing Iamaleava was difficult “in that moment” for players.
Leadership, including from Heupel, opted for “immediate” and “transparent” communication with players about the decision to help them cope with the change and tried to answer any question for which he had answers.
Now he said he’s interested in finding answers in fall camp to questions with too many variables to answer six weeks before the season kicks off.
Joey Aguilar, redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre are the competitors fighting to replace Iamaleava.
“We will have a competition at the quarterback position, three guys inside of that room, really proud of what they’ve done,” he said. “Joey, since he got there in May, Merklinger and George MacIntyre.”
Iamaleava gets a chance to tell his side of the story July 24 at Big Ten media days, but only if he chooses to do so. He reportedly received a $2 million per year NIL deal to transfer to UCLA. The former five-star recruit played 18 games at Tennessee. When he landed with the Bruins, it left Aguilar, who had transferred to UCLA, to go shopping for another new home.
When Tennessee starts the season in Atlanta against Syracuse on August 30, the Vols might have more than one quarterback in the mix.
“We’ve found a way to win with a lot of different quarterbacks throughout my career on the offensive side of the ball,” Heupel said. “We’re going to find a way to win with the guy that earns a starting spot as we go through training camp here in August.”
Aguilar, a transfer from Appalachian State, endeared himself to team leaders quickly. He impressed junior linebacker Arion Carter in practices and workouts as decisive and willing to take risks to make plays, even if there are some tremors felt around the Tennessee program by players closest to their former quarterback.
“Having a guy like that leave with such character and such poise was a hard thing to do. But nobody’s bigger than the program. We wish him the best where he is at. And I hope he has a great career and goes on to do great things,” Carter said Tuesday. “I feel it didn’t waiver from the agenda we had to step forward and do, especially with the new guys we have set, with the three quarterbacks in our room, with George, Jake and Joey.
“I feel we were able to crowd around those guys early and get those guys ready and prepare them over this course of these last few weeks. And these next few weeks going into fall and training camp for this 2026 season I feel very well where we’re standing, but we have a lot to do and a lot to prove still.”
Defensive tackle Nico Eason said he remains good friends with Iamaleava and wishes him “nothing but the best.”
“His decision was his decision. I’m still rooting for him,” Eason said. “I’m hoping everything goes his way. There’s no hate at all toward Nico.”