ESPN College GameDay host and broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit spoke about his thoughts on the Nico Iamaleava transfer situation that occurred in the spring on the podcast “Try That in a Small Town” last week.
While Iamaleava is long gone from Tennessee after transferring to UCLA in the spring window, the story still holds magnitude in the NIL and transfer portal landscape in college football today.
Herbstreit’s comments didn’t present anything concrete, which he admits by saying that he doesn’t know the true story around the saga. He instead just relayed some of the shocking things he had heard over the summer from the fallout.
“I don’t know the true story,” Herbstreit said on the podcast. “I’ve heard different stories. Some people thought it was about money. I’ve heard from close sources that it was more about Nico’s dad going to Josh (Heupel), back in December before they played Ohio State, like, ‘Hey, listen, you’ve got to get better at offensive line, better at receiver, you’ve got to get better around him if you want us to stick around.’ Which blows my mind that a college quarterback’s dad would do that to a head coach. And I think at the end of the day, when they got into spring ball, it was still more of, you haven’t brought people in to make him and this offense better. Again, I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s what I was hearing. So I don’t think it was necessarily about the money. I think it was more about, is Nico going to be able to play well enough to eventually be a first pick in the draft with the players that they had around him. That’s disgusting to me, if that’s true.”
Herbstreit went on to say that he couldn’t imagine (New England Patriots quarterback) Drake Maye’s father questioning Mike Vrabel on personnel moves. And while Herbstreit says that he does wish Iamaleava the best of luck with UCLA after moving closer to home, he believes that his situation at Tennessee “speaks volumes about the kind of times that we’re in right now in this sport.”
Nico Iamaleava took over the Vols’ starting quarterback position in 2024, going 10-2 in the regular season and leading Tennessee to its first College Football Playoffs appearance before getting blown out by Ohio State in Columbus in the first round. He threw 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns to just five interceptions on 63.8% passing as the starter for the Vols. But despite going through training camp with Tennessee this past spring, an implosion happened before the Vols’ Orange & White spring game. Iamaleava was reportedly a no-show in the final Friday workout before the game, leading to Iamaleava entering the transfer portal. Heupel bluntly addressed the situation after the game, saying that no one person was bigger than the Power T as a whole. While many expected Iamaleava to help lead the Vols to another playoff appearance in 2025, Tennessee held its ground and put its foot down amidst the drama.
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Herbstreit’s comments weren’t all about the Iamaleava saga, though. He was also asked about Joey Aguilar’s spot with the Volunteers and what his role could be. Aguilar spent the last two seasons as the starter with App State before transferring to UCLA in the offseason. He spent the spring with the Bruins, but eventually transferred out after Iamaleava’s arrival and wound up with Tennessee. It sort of ended up being a “trade” in the sport, even though Aguilar didn’t play any actual seasons with the Bruins.
“I’m going to wait and see,” Herbstreit said of Aguilar. “He’s going into a great system. I mean, Josh Heupel puts the quarterback in a spot to be successful with the system that they run. So I wouldn’t be shocked to see him do well. And also, he’s going in with, I don’t want to say nothing to lose, but the expectations are always high at Tennessee, but they’re going to be in his corner. That fanbase is going to be in his corner after Nico kind of left them, the way he did.”
Check out Kirk Herbstreit’s full comments from the “Try That In A Small Town” podcast below:
One Response
Why doesn’t Kirk just keep his mouth shut… especially concerning anything to do with the university of Tennessee. It’s a WELL KNOWN FACT he along with all his little cronies at ESPN have always held a strong bias when it comes to the football program and to this day no one still understands who pissed in their Cheerios. So stfu Kirk about things you know absolutely nothing about you smf