Lucas Panzica talks through a wild weekend on Rocky Top, as Tennessee was in the headlines, over the standoff and ensuing drama that happened with QB Nico Iamaleava. He then dives into the strong statement that Josh Huepel and the Vols made to the entire college football landscape.
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00:00After a wild weekend, Nico Iamaliava is officially out as the quarterback of the Vols,
00:05and I think the University of Tennessee and head coach Josh Heupel
00:08made a massive statement to the rest of college football over the weekend.
00:15Hey, Lucas Panzeke here from 104.5 The Zone and A to Z Sports.
00:19Okay, so the dust on this has largely settled after what was a wild two to three days
00:24for the University of Tennessee.
00:26As we know, on Thursday, we learned that Nico Iamaliava was in contract negotiations with Tennessee.
00:32What followed was a war of words, denial of the report from Nico's side of the aisle.
00:37Of course, Nico not showing up to practice on Friday,
00:40and then the news broke on Saturday morning that Josh Heupel informed the team
00:44on the day of the Orange and White game in Neyland Stadium
00:47that they would be moving on from Nico Iamaliava
00:50as he reportedly asked for $4 million for the upcoming season,
00:55up from what he would have been making in a range of $2.4 million.
01:00A historic moment in this new era of college football.
01:04For the first time ever, we saw a holdout in the college game,
01:08and certainly it's the first time that we've seen a player in a contract dispute
01:12for that amount of money at a premier program
01:15and for a premier player at a premier position.
01:19Tennessee made a big statement.
01:20First of all, with head coach Josh Heupel and his comments on Saturday,
01:24both on the Vol Network before the Orange and White game,
01:26and then meeting with the media in the press conference after the spring game,
01:30in which Heupel said, quote,
01:31no one is bigger than the power tee, even me.
01:35Josh Heupel is a guy that typically talks in circles, so to speak, in a press conference.
01:40He'll say a lot without saying a lot, if that makes sense.
01:43And it's all done very intentionally.
01:45But on Saturday, we saw a different Josh Heupel at the podium.
01:49We saw a direct, a confident, and unshaken Josh Heupel
01:53as this program moves forward without Nico Iamaliava,
01:56even going on to say that the moment Nico did not show up for practice on Friday morning,
02:01that was when Josh Heupel knew they would be moving on from the former five-star quarterback.
02:06He said, at that point, you rip off the Band-Aid and you move on as a program.
02:10And it was really interesting seeing Josh Heupel and Tennessee players
02:14speaking with the media after the Orange and White game.
02:17They looked like a galvanized group, talking about leadership
02:21and how much they love this team, specifically from tight end Miles Kitzelman.
02:25I was fascinated to see what the response from Tennessee players would be
02:29if Nico was indeed on the way out.
02:31And maybe that remains to be seen with the transfer portal opening up on Wednesday.
02:35Will there be players that follow Nico to the portal?
02:38We don't know, but they certainly put on a showing of a galvanized group on Saturday
02:43that wants to come together after the Nico Iamaliava era came to an end at Tennessee.
02:49So what kind of statement did Tennessee make to the rest of college football?
02:53Well, they showed that they're not going to be held hostage by a player
02:57that you could argue underperformed last year with the sky-high expectations
03:01that were placed on him and turned around asking to be the highest paid player
03:05in all of college football.
03:07The Vols said no.
03:08They drew a line in the sand.
03:10And it's the first time that we've seen a program under this kind of spotlight
03:14do this, saying no to a player with the talent profile of Nico Iamaliava,
03:19who now will hit the portal and see if he can go get that $4 million elsewhere.
03:24I also think, after seeing that on Saturday, that other programs across the country,
03:28other coaches, athletic directors, are going to be calling up Josh Heupel
03:32and athletic director Danny White at Tennessee saying thank you.
03:36Thank you for finally standing up in what has been an incredibly volatile
03:40and insane market where the player has every ounce of the power.
03:45At some point, some school needed to stand up and simply say no.
03:50Now, that's not to say that schools have refused to pay players certain amounts of NIL.
03:54That absolutely happens all the time.
03:56It's a big reason why we see as much turnover as we do in the transfer portal.
04:00But not to this extent, not this high profile of a situation,
04:05and certainly not to the point where a player is trying to exercise leverage
04:09by holding out and missing a practice, which is what Nico Iamaliava did.
04:14And we've seen widespread support, not just from the Tennessee fan base,
04:18but from across the sport of college football for Tennessee standing up
04:22and finally saying there has to be a line somewhere.
04:26And Nico Iamaliava and his people crossed that line with Tennessee.
04:30Where we go from here will be fascinating.
04:33But Tennessee has the support of a lot of people across the country
04:36finally standing up for what has been way too crazy of an NIL landscape in college football.
04:42So good for Josh Heupel and the Vols.
04:44There's a lot of work to be done.
04:46They certainly don't get better as a football team without Nico Iamaliava as their quarterback,
04:50but they made a point and they put their money where their mouth is,
04:54quite literally showing the rest of college football
04:57that they would not be held hostage by one player in this era.