Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel turns to quarterback Nico Iamaleava (8) after their post game interview after winning the Citrus Bowl NCAA College football game on Monday, January 1, 2024 in Orlando, Fla. against Iowa. Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Kirk Herbstreit Says Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee Situation Wasn't About Money

Originally posted on Tennessee Volunteers on SI
By Jonathan Williams | Last updated Jul 16, 2025 10:45 AM ET

College football analyst Kirk Herbstreit called the situations between Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee 'disgusting'.

We are couple of months removed from the crazy turn of events when former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava entered the transfer portal at the end of spring practice, which ultimately resulted in Iamaleava landing at UCLA and Joey Aguilar ending up at Tennessee.

The root of the dispute between the two parties was reported to be about NIL and the need of increased payments. However, college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit made the claim that he doesn't believe it was about money necessarily. He thinks it was about the talent on Tennessee's roster.

"That fan base is going to be in [Joey Aguilar's] corner after Nico kind of left them the way he did," Herbstreit said on the Try That in a Small Town Podcast. "I don't know the true story. 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 back in December before they played Ohio State, like, 'Hey, listen, you gotta get better at offensive line and better at receiver, you gotta 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 (Tennessee) haven't brought people in to make [Nico] 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 round pick in the draft with the players that they had around him. That's disgusting to me if that's true."

Regardless of what the reasoning was behind Iamaleava's decision to leave Tennessee was, it was quite unusual, even in today's world of college football. It's safe to say, Tennessee fans will be spending this season backing up their starting quarterback while also keeping a close eye on Iamaleava's play at UCLA to see if his decision paid off.