Big Orange Report April 17, 2025

 Orange and White Drama

The Tennessee football team was set and ready to wrap up spring drills with the Orange and White scrimmage on Saturday and then the shocking news exploded on Friday. Starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava demanded an increase in his NIL money but Athletic Director Danny White and head coach Josh Heupel balked and demanded that Nico honor the deal he signed three years ago. After dining with offensive coordinator Joey Halzle and the other quarterbacks on Thursday evening, Nico did not show up for practice on Friday and the news of transfer documents and the spring portal circulated across the media platforms quickly. The exact demands will probably never be known but Iamaleava was already drawing north of 2.5 million dollars per season.

To say the least, Vol Nation was caught off guard, confused and rattled. Afterall, the roster only included two other scholarship quarterbacks, both young and inexperienced. As the news began to sink in, it looks as if the concern and consternation began to turn to anger for many Big Orange fans.

Putting the situation under the microscope and examining the numbers indicates that the position taken by White and Heupel was exactly the correct thing to do. Nico Iamaleava was a slightly above average quarterback last season. He threw for 2616 years and 19 touchdowns, completing 63.8 percent of his throws. The Tennessee passing game was 12th in the SEC final statistics.

The powerful Vol ground game disguised the mediocre air attack because UT led the conference in rushing, averaging 225.85 yards per contest.

Looking closer at Nico's production, we see that he threw for 200 yards or less in eight games last season. Of his 19 touchdown tosses, 11 came against three teams, Vanderbilt (4), UTEP (4) and UT Chattanooga (3). The Vandy game accounted for almost half of his TD tosses in conference action (9). The offense sputtered and was shutout in the first half in three consecutive league games vs. Arkansas, Florida and Alabama. Iamaleava finished his career at Tennessee with an anemic 104 yards passing in the playoff loss to Ohio State. Yes, he has a big arm but way too many times he over threw open receivers on deep routes. Finally, his destination will be identified soon but there is a rule that spring transfers will have to sit out a year if they elect to join another conference program.

The Question of the Moment

Obviously Coach Heupel and his offensive staff will be checking out the availability of quarterbacks in the portal by this weekend. Is there a veteran, proven quarterback at another school outside the SEC that would relish the opportunity to play for the Big Orange in Heupel's offense? While we wait, the staff moves forward with a second-year signal caller and a true freshman. Jake Merklinger threw nine passes last fall and was red shirted. George MacIntyre is an early enrollee and has participated in spring drills.

Heupel Leaves No Doubt

The Vol staff will be searching the transfer portal come Wednesday. Coach Heupel had several comments after the departure of Nico but here is one that makes things clear.

"Anytime your roster has the opportunity to change, that's in December, that's in the spring, right? As we go through the process, you're always evaluating what you have on your roster, where you are vulnerable, where numbers might not be right, injuries, whatever," Heupel said. " And you're trying to get your roster where it needs to be to give yourself the best chance when you get to kick off in the fall. And certainly with only two scholarship players at the quarterback position, we

re going to have to find another guy!"

A Quick Note

The Tennessee softball team took two of three games over No. 1 ranked Texas over the weekend. Staff ace Karlyn Pickens was "Lights Out" and pitched back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday, yielding just one run in each contest. In her second game in less than 24 hours, Pickens fanned 10 batters and struck out the side in the home half of the seventh to send the SoftVols flying home with the series win.

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