Tennessee endured a tumultuous offseason at quarterback, a situation that has not resolved itself as the 2025 season approaches.

Returning starter Nico Iamaleava abruptly left the team on the eve of the spring game due a reported NIL dispute, and eventually transferred to UCLA. The former five-star recruit’s departure was one of the stories of the offseason in college football, an ugly split that appeared to be all about money.

Iamaleava skipped Tennessee’s practice on Friday, April 11, the day before the team’s Orange and White spring game. Head coach Josh Heupel announced the following day that Tennessee was “moving on from” Iamaleava, and elaborated on the situation during his appearance at SEC Media Days in Atlanta on Tuesday.

“Our football team, they cared about Nico,” Heupel said on the set of SEC Now. “Nico’s going to be a great player and he’s going to have a great career. I love Nico. It was hard for the players in that moment, but in leadership of any kind, having clear, consistent transparent communication and also timely, in that it allows your people to handle it the best that they can.

“It’s quarterback, it’s unique in some way, but you’ve got to have a ‘next man up’ mentality. It’s going to happen to every team in college football across the landscape of the season. Quarterback’s no different in that way. Our guys have handled the change, transition — whatever you want to call it, in a very positive way. Outside noise, you try not pay to much attention to it. Expectations may have changed from outside the building after that moment, bu they haven’t changed inside the locker room.”

Heupel said earlier Tuesday that his team’s quarterback competition remains a three-way battle between redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger, true freshman George McIntyre and transfer Joey Aguilar — a former starter at Appalachian State who, ironically, spent the spring at UCLA before leaving just as Iamaleava arrived. Heupel said he’s confident his team will continue to succeed behind whomever emerges at the position.

“The three guys inside that room, I’m really proud of what they’ve done,” said Heupel, who is 37-15 in four seasons at Tennessee. “Joey, since he got there in May, Merklinger and George McIntyre, what those two guys have done since they’ve been on campus … I’m really proud of the steps that they’ve taken through the summer in developing relationships, rapport with the guys around them, their ability to compete in a positive way with each other in the meeting room.

“On the field, their ability to have leadership traits and to continue to grow in that, and I’m really excited about getting on the field with those guys. We’ve found a way to win with a lot of different quarterbacks throughout my career on the offensive side of the ball, and we’re going to find a way to win with the guy that earns the starting spot as we go through training camp here in August.”

Tennessee’s two holdover quarterbacks were both four-star recruits out of high school, Merklinger in 2024 and MacIntyre this past winter. Merklinger appeared in two games while redshirting last season, completing six of nine passes for 48 yards.

His late arrival in Knoxville notwithstanding, Aguilar has by far the most experience at the college level. He was a two-year starter at Appalachian State, was Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2023 and has totaled 6,760 yards and 56 touchdowns passing the last two seasons.

“We took him through our spring installs once he was there on campus; he got a chance to digest those things,” Heupel said. “You get into summer, you’re able to kind of repeat some of those things. He’s continued to grow in his understanding of what we’re doing and also the verbiage that we’re using, maybe identifying defensive structures. There’s so many nuances that go into it to having clear communication in the meeting room, on the practice field, and then ultimately on game day as well.

“So is it an accelerated process? Absolutely. But I think any time you have a guy that’s played a lot of football and sat in college meeting rooms offensively, he’s been able to be a part of different things, he’s able to draw on those experiences, correlate it to something that maybe he’s done before, and kind of expedite the growth process as well.”