Those were Tennessee football head coach Josh Huepel’s words Saturday following the end of a bizarre chapter in the history of Volunteer football. The day was supposed to be about the Vol’s spring game, to showcase the program and build more anticipation for the 2025 season. But instead it became a story about a player who wasn’t participating in the well attended scrimmage. That player, was last year’s starting QB Nico Iamaleava, who mutually agreed to part ways with the football program as he seeks a “better” NIL deal elsewhere. This decision came in the wake of the 1-year starter staging college footballs first NFL style “hold out” as he skipped out on practice and meetings this week in advance of the spring game, in an attempt to leverage more money from Knoxville.

There are many angles to this story. The obvious ones are “where does Nico transfer to?” and “who starts this year for the Vol’s?” While those certainly bring intrigue to the sport, in my opinion the real story revolves around what does this say about the sport and how it continues to change. It is easy as a sports fan to enjoy the offseason and its game of musical chairs. Not just because you might be a nerd for roster construction, but because the drama surrounding moves can play out to soap opera levels.

But, that is not what has made college football, especially in its major regional hubs, special. Yes recruiting saga’s always existed and played out in hysterics at times. And yes there have been exciting transfers in the past, even before NIL’s. But, this is an unwanted, unsavory “pro-sports” touch no one ever asked for. Somehow we have reached a world where compensating the players has turned to a lawless land of chaos, that no one can regain control of. The NCAA is asleep at the switch and so it is up to the programs and conferences to try and make law to govern the sport…ironically those powers are not really interested in doing so.

I commend Josh Huepel and the program/boosters for putting their foot down on this one. Iamaleava is talented, but to this point he had done nothing to warrant any kind of pay increase, let alone sympathy for a hold out. He was a highly sought after recruit, who has thrived in a time where you can dominate the attention economy all the way to what you want, regardless of your meager accomplishments. The Hawaiian native is represented in part by his dad, who fancies himself a Lavar Ball type of manager, so you can imagine the headache this presents. Nico is certainly entitled to his right to seek the best situation possible to play in, as after all there aren’t many rules at all against it, but an NFL style hold out is quite the bold move for a teenager who wasn’t trusted to throw a pass in a playoff game.

I don’t say this to claim Tennessee or Huepel is guaranteed to come out on the right side of this. After-all the same boosters and coaches who went above and beyond to bring him to Neyland Stadium last year, are now admitting they got it wrong and sending him away. They may be vindicated here, but they may also fail to replace or improve upon him, while number eight lights it up at his rumored new home of Oregon. But that’s assuming an awful lot of things we can’t really account for happens. In the end, that is why I commend them for not being held hostage.

The fallout of this sequence of events is only just beginning to play out. There is a lot more to come from here, as the player and program will likely play a game of he said/she said as they find their new home and QB. I’m sure neither will look for long because money moves fast in this bizarre college football world. We won’t learn all the ramifications of this for some time still. But if there is one take away from this, it’s truly that “nobody is bigger than good old Rocky Top.”

It feels great to do be back writing for you all, as you already know life has been busy. But I’ll be back in full swing shortly on a range of topics, so stay tuned. Twitter you can find Mike @Mike_Sheerin, Tyler @TMon_19 and Sean @SeanMartinNFL. Subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Visit the Rangers Ed Shop by clicking the link on our homepage. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon!