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Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher knew what he was doing. As the final seconds of an Orange Bowl victory following the 2020 season ticked away, Fisher gave a little fist pump before he began to look around defensively.

As Fisher jogged to midfield he spotted what he was looking for: players holding a Gatorade jug, charging toward him. Showing a burst of speed, Fisher outran the would-be green bath, and even though the effort resulted in a bit of a limp, the large grin on his face remained.

The Aggies seemed on the cusp of breaking through after the 41-27 victory over North Carolina and a No. 4 ranking to end the pandemic-shortened season, their highest ranking since 1939. To this day, Fisher insists they were the second-best team in the country and should have made the College Football Playoff. Nothing will convince him otherwise.

While that great debate will live on in Texas A&M lore, what was not up for discussion on Jan. 2, 2021 was this: The Aggies appeared ready to break into college football’s most rarefied air, fulfilling the massive expectations that came with handing Fisher an unprecedented 10-year, $75 million contract just a few years before.

“I’m gonna tell you this,” Fisher said after the Orange Bowl victory. “We ain’t done yet.”

Since then, however, things have started to unravel. Texas A&M has opened each of the past two seasons ranked No. 6 in the preseason polls and is only 11-6 over that time. It is currently unranked, following losses to Appalachian State and Mississippi State, and heads into Tuscaloosa on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, CBS) to face No. 1 Alabama at a disappointing 3-2.

Suddenly, a game that once looked like a potential top-10 showdown and the first meeting of Fisher and Saban since their offseason war of words has taken on a very different meaning. The Aggies are losing games they shouldn’t, Fisher’s offense is the primary culprit and his post-Orange Bowl contract extension means his buyout will remain above $50 million until 2027, per USA Today. It has left some in College Station wondering whether they’re getting enough return for their hefty investment.

Fisher declined an interview for this story, but his boss believes he will turn it around.

“Look, Jimbo is an offensive innovator,” Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said. “He’s always adapted to the style of play. When it’s clicking on all cylinders, it works and it’s proven to work. So we just have to keep maturing, keep getting better. And obviously, we’re going to keep recruiting at a high level.”


FISHER EARNED THAT reputation Bjork mentioned first as an assistant at LSU and then as head coach at Florida State. Quarterbacks JaMarcus Russell, EJ Manuel, Christian Ponder and Jameis Winston were all first-round picks after starting multiple seasons for Fisher. His Seminoles went 26-1 with Winston as the starter, won a national title in 2013 and made the College Football Playoff in 2014.

But that feels like a lifetime ago in college football, long before NIL and the transfer portal, and back when Nick Saban still relied on defense and ball control to win games. When Saban hired Lane Kiffin as his offensive coordinator in 2014 it was to keep up with the changing times. As a result, he kept his dynasty rolling by recruiting and developing future Heisman contenders and first-round picks at quarterback seemingly every year.

This is an area where Fisher has fallen short in recent years. From 2015 to ’22, the post-Winston era, Fisher’s quarterbacks have combined for an average Total QBR of 66.5, which ranks 38th among FBS head coaches to coach at least 40 games during that span.

Between 2013 and 2017, the Seminoles signed seven quarterbacks. Only one finished his career with Florida State. At Texas A&M, Fisher has been a prodigious recruiter — his top-ranked 2022 class is one of the highest rated ever– signing and developing blue-chip talent all over the field.

But to this point, that elite talent has not panned out at quarterback.

In College Station, Fisher has signed five signal-callers. James Foster and Zach Calzada, in Fisher’s first two recruiting classes at Texas A&M, have already transferred. Haynes King, the No. 4 dual threat quarterback in the class of 2020, lost his starting job to transfer Max Johnson after the App State loss, though he was pressed into duty again this weekend when Johnson was injured, throwing two interceptions after coming off the bench. The Aggies are still very high on freshman Conner Weigman, the No. 1 quarterback in the 2022 ESPN 300, with Fisher saying Monday he could play now and be comfortable.

This year, Texas A&M ranks 105th of 131 teams in total offense (335 yards per game) and 108th in scoring offense (21.8 points per game). There aren’t many bright spots: 101st in passing offense, 98th in rushing offense, 96th in first downs, 79th in completion percentage, 115th in time of possession and last — 131st — in plays run per game (56.4). Asked about the struggles after scoring 24 points in the Mississippi State loss, Fisher doubled down, saying his system still works.

“That system is the same system a lot of people use. The plays are there,” Fisher said. “We’re just not executing.”

“I think the mistake people make is saying, ‘Boy, this is outdated,'” said former Florida coach Dan Mullen, now an ESPN analyst. “There is no perfect system. Maybe more of the issue is he has to adapt to his current roster, which he went and recruited all this speed and all these athletes on offense, and he’s got to have the system that fits those guys.”

At least one top recruit agrees with that last part.

Johntay Cook II, a Texas high school receiver who is No. 32 in the 2023 ESPN 300, told On3 during his recruitment it was a concern.

“Here is the difference between Texas and Texas A&M,” Cook said. “Right now, Texas has the scheme but not the players, A&M has the players but not the scheme. I mean A&M is running like the Wishbone offense. It’s cool and all, but if Jimbo opened it up that would be serious.”

Cook is just one player. But he was an A&M target who committed to the rival Longhorns. Still, Fisher landed Evan Stewart, the No. 2 WR and No. 13 overall recruit in the 2022 class and Chris Marshall, the No. 4 receiver.

While Fisher continues to sign elite wide receivers, he has had only three drafted in his 12 years as a head coach, including just one in the first four rounds. At Texas A&M, his receivers have struggled to put up numbers, either because of issues at quarterback or the intricacies of the system.

Manuel said it is not that the offense is overly complex; it is that there is a method to the way Fisher wants it run. It all starts with the quarterback, who has to not only read and identify the defense to make sure the offense is set for success. He must also make the correct protection calls for the offensive line, a duty that normally goes to the center.

Once quarterbacks are fully comfortable understanding what Fisher wants and how it should look, then everything becomes easier. Ponder, Manuel and Winston all redshirted at Florida State. So did Fisher’s last starting quarterback with the Seminoles, Deondre Francois, who had the highest QBR of any of Fisher’s QBs since Winston (78.0).

“The principles that he has with his offense, if you can figure them out and stick to them, you’re going to have success because he lays everything out there for you,” Manuel said. “It’s not easy, but once you do it, it’s like, ‘OK, let’s go, I got this.’ Make no mistake — it’s a professional football offense, and it’s not for everybody. But the guys that can figure it out will have success.”

Over the past decade, the high school game has evolved and QB-friendly schemes like the Air Raid — which a lot of Texas high schools run — don’t require many of those nuances. Instead, there is a focus on simplification — the quarterback in the shotgun, looking to the sideline for the call. But Fisher has not simplified anything. He firmly believes in what he does with quarterbacks and his offense.

But if quarterbacks coming up in spread offenses are not able to immediately handle everything Fisher wants his quarterbacks to do, and it takes a QB multiple years to truly grasp the concepts, does Fisher’s approach still make sense in the transfer portal era?


FOR THOSE WHO believe in Fisher’s pro-style offense, they can point to scoring 41 points in an upset win over Alabama last year, but even more importantly to that 9-1 season in 2020.

That offense forged Texas A&M with a new identity. Gone were the second-half swoons that had become a running joke among A&M’s detractors. This was a physical, tough, old-school SEC team. The 2020 Aggies led the SEC in yards per rush (5.5) and time of possession and ranked fourth in the country in fewest sacks per pass attempt, allowing just four sacks all season. Senior quarterback Kellen Mond, a four-year starter, was incredibly efficient, and the Aggies converted 55% of their third downs, third best nationally.

“If you just look at 2020, I don’t think anyone had any offensive complaints,” Bjork said. “Ball control, move the ball, explosive plays, all those things were there. There’s an evolution right? When you have new quarterbacks, no matter what level, there’s a transition. When you have a Kellen Mond where you’ve got experience, and then you transition to new quarterbacks, that takes adjustment. This year, same thing. Haynes King didn’t have much experience. Then now, Max [Johnson] has got a little more experience. So you’re maybe seeing a little more poise.”

This year, the offensive line that was so stout in 2020 has faced issues, complicating those quarterback transitions. The Aggies have faced pressure on 39% of their QB dropbacks, second worst in the FBS behind only Boston College (41%).

Fisher shuffled his offensive staff’s duties before fall camp. Offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey, who also coached quarterbacks, was moved to tight ends, and is now co-OC with James Coley, who moved from tight ends to wide receivers. Dameyune Craig, who had been WR coach since arriving from FSU with Fisher, now coaches the quarterbacks alongside him.

Bjork has heard the questions wondering if Fisher has too much on his plate to handle playcalling. When Fisher has been asked about whether he would consider giving up playcalling duties, he says he “possibly could,” but it’s unclear who on the existing staff would take on that role, especially after the changes in responsibilities.

“I don’t see that,” Bjork said. “There’s head coaches that call plays all over the country. And that’s just how Jimbo is built. He wants to be in the offense. He wants to work with the quarterbacks. That’s his forte. That’s why he was hired, and that’s why we extended him because he’s got that in him.”


FORMER GEORGIA COACH Mark Richt is another fan of Fisher’s approach to coaching quarterbacks. He was at the Miami-Texas A&M game in September to watch Johnson, his nephew, make his first start for the Aggies. Richt said one of the reasons Johnson chose to transfer from LSU to Texas A&M was to learn under Fisher.

“That part of the game is really his strength, the more you can put on him to gain an advantage on the field, the better for Max,” Richt said. “Jimbo is hard on them dudes, but it’s not personal. He’s hard on all those guys.”

Another coach who has competed against Fisher does not think the Aggies’ issues stem from Fisher also serving as the primary playcaller. Though the papers and notebooks Fisher has in his hands on the sideline have become the butt of jokes, the opposing coach noted, “The guy has a million plays that his guys execute that they don’t even show. That’s amazing to me. I don’t know what all their problems are. But I think anytime you have a highly ranked recruiting class, and then you’re not measuring up to that, people are going to start throwing stones.”

But others are just puzzled by the results, saying the complicated system introduces too many problems with the sheer amount of talent on hand, that all those call sheets and notebooks are an indicator Fisher is just trying to do too much from years of knowledge he has picked up as a playcaller at multiple stops. One coach said the pressure to break out of a slump can sometimes cause coaches to dig too deep in the playbook instead of pulling back. He said that’s what he sees watching Fisher call a game.

“As a young coach, Tom Osborne gave me a piece of advice I never forgot,” a longtime offensive coordinator said. “He said, ‘When times get tough — and they will — get out your eraser, not your pencil.'”

A Power 5 head coach agreed, saying there is way too much talent on hand for the offense to be so dysfunctional.

“Simplicity is what makes great offenses. The ability to execute,” he said. “I think that’s their issue. I turn the film on and I’m not quite sure what they’re trying to do. You have to have an identity and you have to have something that you can bank on. And I just don’t see that they have that. I know how good all these players are. Nobody can see behind the veil, but it’s just hard for me to envision that you can’t line up and run the ball against Appalachian State. I truly believe if they ran four plays the whole game — two passes and two runs — I think they win by 40.”

All that talent is a reminder of one of Fisher’s strengths: He can recruit. He knows how he wants to build a program, stockpiling talent along both the offensive and defensive lines and landing rare running back talents, such as Devon Achane, who was the MVP of that Orange Bowl as a freshman and led the SEC in yards per carry (7.0) last year. He’ll have talent. He’s an old-school coach who puts players in the NFL. The irony is Fisher’s trademark is the one area that seems to be holding back the Aggies. If they’re ever going to challenge for national titles, that’s the one area that demands the most improvement.

Both Alabama and Georgia thrived once they changed their offenses.

“I remember him saying, ‘I feel like our offense is a Lamborghini, but it’s headed off a cliff,’ meaning we’ve got these great players but are behind the times in what we’re doing,” Kiffin told ESPN last year about his first meeting with Saban after he was hired. “So we needed to change directions.”

The Crimson Tide made the College Football Playoff game six of the following eight seasons.

After a 2019 season when Georgia averaged just 21.5 points per game over a six-game stretch of SEC games, then scored just 10 in the SEC title game against LSU, Kirby Smart hired Todd Monken to take over for Coley, who was serving as offensive coordinator (he left a month later to join Fishers’ staff). Last year, the Bulldogs won their first national championship in 41 years with Stetson Bennett, a former walk-on, at QB as the Bulldogs averaged 38.6 points per game.

Still, Mullen said it’s easier for coaches like Saban and Smart to make offensive changes, because their careers were spent on the defensive side. For an offensive coach, calling your own plays as a head coach is still a source of pride, although that makes the target on your back even bigger.

Bjork believes the season is still a work in progress. But he anticipates working together with Fisher to address any future issues.

“What are the things that the program needs to be successful?” Bjork said. “If that involves making changes, implementing new ideas, there’s always ongoing conversations about all those things. Coach Fisher and I have a great relationship from that perspective. We talk all the time about the state of the program or what’s needed or what changes he might be thinking about. As I’m concerned for this year, 2022, this script is not even written yet. Coach knows how to win at a high level. He knows that if adjustments need to be made, he’s gonna make the right kind of adjustments and those things all take place during a constant evaluation. It’s an evolution.”

That starts Saturday against the Crimson Tide. Can Fisher pull off another stunner, like when he became the first Saban assistant to beat the master last year? Or will the Crimson Tide further add to the Aggies’ misery?

“I do think he is under pressure on the program taking the next step,” Mullen said. “That’s where a lot of the pressure comes from saying, ‘Hey, this is Year 5. You’ve had some really good recruiting classes. Are we going to see you at 10 or 11 wins this year? In November, are you in the mix for the SEC title game?’ Those are questions that people want answered.”

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My first bet: 2025 Kentucky Derby picks

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My first bet: 2025 Kentucky Derby picks

The first race in the quest for the 2025 Triple Crown is nearly upon us. The post draw for the 151st Kentucky Derby was Saturday night, as we found out where the horses will line up, trained by Michael McCarthy, Journalism opened as the 3-1 favorite as he enters on a four-race winning streak. Meanwhile, Bob Baffert will have two horses in the race, Citizen Bull and Rodriguez.

The Kentucky Derby will be held Saturday, May 3 with post time at 6:57 p.m. ET from Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Last year’s winner was Mystik Dan at 18-1 odds.

Best bet: Exacta box (4, 8, and 9)

Burnham Square (12-1 to win) got a very good draw at the No. 9 post. The son of Liam’s Map won the Holy Bull Stakes, was fourth in the Fountain of Youth, and was impressive in the Blue Grass Stakes. He is peaking at right time, and I’m expecting a massive effort on Saturday.

Journalism (3-1) is the best horse in the field, and got a great draw at No. 8. The son of Curlin hasn’t lost a race yet (4-0). The No. 8 post has produced nine winners since 1930, and he will have speed to his inside and outside, which will benefit him. He was bred for this distance.

Rodriguez (12-1) is one of Bob Baffert’s horses. He has a lot of speed, and should fly out of the gate at the No. 4 post. I’m expecting him to have a clear lead early. Taking off the blinkers was a great move by Baffert, hence him winning the Wood Memorial. This is Baffert’s best chance of walking away with roses.

Note: An Exacta box bet is when you pick at least two horses to finish in the top two. It differs from an Exacta bet by not having to specify the correct order of the top two.

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Inside the monthslong saga that led to Nico Iamaleava’s shocking Tennessee transfer

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Inside the monthslong saga that led to Nico Iamaleava's shocking Tennessee transfer

FOUR MONTHS BEFORE Nico Iamaleava shocked the college football world by leaving Tennessee for UCLA, signs of his discontent were apparent.

On Dec. 28, hours before the winter transfer portal window closed, Tennessee sources say Iamaleava’s representatives, including his father, Nic, reached out to the Tennessee NIL collective, Spyre Sports Group, and were looking to increase Iamaleava’s pay for 2025 to around $4 million. Hitting that target would put him closer to the amount eventually procured by transfer quarterbacks Carson Beck (Miami) and Darian Mensah (Duke) during the winter portal. Iamaleava was set to make around $2.4 million at Tennessee this year, sources said.

Sources close to the quarterback deny they were seeking $4 million.

Iamaleava wasn’t returning phone calls from coaches at this point. Sources close to the quarterback said he needed to take a “mental break” following the Vols’ 42-17 loss to eventual national champion Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff, but they acknowledged that they did seriously consider entering his name in the portal.

Tennessee sources say they believe the Iamaleavas reached out to several schools, including Miami, Ole Miss and Oregon, to gauge interest. Tennessee coach Josh Heupel was seemingly able to smooth things over and keep Nico on board for 2025, but the quarterback did not receive a new deal or more money.

But while the deterioration of the relationship between Iamaleava and Tennessee was months in the making, the whirlwind that followed his decision to skip practice on April 11 — a day ahead of Tennessee’s spring game — and enter the transfer portal was dizzying.

Coaches and teammates attempted to reach him that day, a Friday, but were met with silence.

“As the day went on, it started to become obvious. He was gone and wasn’t coming back,” a Tennessee source said.

A little more than a week later, Iamaleava had signed with UCLA. A source described Iamaleava’s UCLA agreement as paying him less than what he was earning at Tennessee but more than the $1.5 million that some have reported. A day after UCLA announced Iamaleava’s signing, the Bruins’ expected starting quarterback, Joey Aguilar, left and reportedly joined … Tennessee.

It became the crystallization of college football in 2025 in which million-dollar quarterbacks can become free agents every season and Power 4 starters can essentially be swapped for each other. The ripple effects will be felt far into next season, when the fortunes of a Tennessee team with playoff aspirations and a UCLA squad under pressure to turn things around quickly hang in the balance.

How did a once-promising relationship between school and QB fall apart so swiftly? What does Iamaleava’s big move mean for UCLA? And what comes next for both sides after the most prominent college football breakup in recent memory?


THE DAY OF Iamaleava’s no-show at Tennessee, UCLA coach DeShaun Foster spoke with ESPN about the start to the Bruins’ spring practice session. Foster had completed his first full offseason leading the program and had made key changes to the coaching staff and to the roster, including the additions of offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri and Aguilar, a transfer from Appalachian State.

Foster was complimentary of Aguilar during the interview. UCLA was prepared to “lean on” Aguilar’s experience, especially with Sunseri coming in from Indiana and installing a new offense.

“I don’t want to say he’s just a pocket passer, but he does a good job of getting the ball out of his hand, anticipating some throws,” Foster said. “Being that this is a new system for him, I just like the way he’s approaching each practice. You can just tell that he’s getting more vocal, he’s getting more comfortable, and he’s been able to assert his leadership a little bit more.”

But by the end of the day, UCLA’s quarterback situation seemed foggier because of what was happening more than 2,000 miles away in Knoxville. Once Iamaleava was officially in the transfer portal, the Bruins emerged as the front-runners for the Southern California native practically by default.

Sources close to Iamaleava were confident he could secure a deal for more than $4 million at his next school, but he was working with little leverage. SEC players cannot transfer to another SEC program in the spring and immediately play in the fall, so those schools weren’t involved. Iamaleava’s absence from the Friday practice also created a perception among coaches that he had attempted a holdout.

High-profile players and their reps seeking offseason pay raises is nothing new in the era of NIL and the portal, especially this year with the imminent arrival of revenue sharing. But rarely do these discussions devolve into a public feud.

“It’s been going on in a lot of programs for a while,” a Power 4 personnel director said. “You just don’t hear about it. It’s happening more than people think. It’s just public because it’s Tennessee and it’s Nico.”

Sources at USC, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Texas Tech and several other Power 4 programs told ESPN they weren’t getting involved with Iamaleava. Some had quarterbacks locked in; others were hesitant to deal with Iamaleava’s representatives. The Bruins, meanwhile, were debating whether to move forward but would be interested if the price was right.

Although UCLA had been pleased with Aguilar as a good fit for Sunseri’s offense, it also viewed Iamaleava as a clear upgrade. He had started a full season for an SEC team that went to the CFP. UCLA recognized some of the drama in Iamaleava’s orbit, but the player himself was well-liked by those inside the Tennessee program until his no-show and was fairly productive on the field while staying healthy. Iamaleava passed for 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns, but in his eight SEC games and the playoff game against Ohio State, he passed for more than 200 yards only twice.

“If it wasn’t a local kid, it would’ve been a little bit more difficult. But being able to see him play in high school and evaluating that film at Tennessee wasn’t hard to do,” Foster said. “A lot of the kids on the team know him and have played with him.”


IAMALEAVA’S ATTEMPTED NIL renegotiation was just the start of a tumultuous offseason. It soon became increasingly evident to those at Tennessee that Iamaleava’s camp was looking into options elsewhere.

Multiple sources at Tennessee told ESPN that Iamaleava missed two offseason workouts in February and that his father told Tennessee coaches that Iamaleava’s attorney advised him to skip workouts until he worked things out with Spyre. Iamaleava’s camp contends the absence was over a payment issue with Spyre. A Spyre representative told ESPN that there were no missed payments. Nic Iamaleava could not be reached for comment. The quarterback returned to workouts the next week, but his NIL deal remained unchanged.

Before Tennessee’s spring practices began in March, school officials were alerted by Oregon’s staff that Iamaleava’s camp had contacted the Ducks inquiring about their interest, according to sources at Oregon and Tennessee. Oregon told the Iamaleava camp it wasn’t interested.

Sources close to Iamaleava told ESPN that the family’s primary concern in the offseason was less about his compensation and more about Tennessee’s efforts to build up a better supporting cast on offense. Those close to Iamaleava were concerned about pass protection and his overall health. Iamaleava sat out the second half of the Mississippi State game after a concussion, but he went through the concussion protocol and was cleared the next week by medical personnel and played against Georgia.

Those in Iamaleava’s camp expected Heupel to shore up the offensive line and reload at wide receiver this offseason, with one source saying the coach made “false promises” about those efforts. When asked to respond, Heupel declined to comment through a university spokesperson, saying he was done talking about Iamaleava.

The Vols must replace four starting offensive linemen in 2025 and brought in two transfers who had been starters, Arizona’s Wendell Moe Jr. and Notre Dame’s Sam Pendleton, as well as five-star freshman tackle David Sanders, who was part of a 2025 recruiting class ranked 11th nationally by ESPN. The receiving corps will feature considerable youth in 2025 after Dont’e Thornton Jr. and Bru McCoy graduated and Squirrel White transferred to Florida State.

The lone wideout added via the portal in January, Alabama’s Amari Jefferson, is a redshirt freshman. Former five-star recruit Mike Matthews will be a sophomore next season after catching only seven passes in limited opportunities in 2024. Matthews and fellow freshman Boo Carter, who will play receiver and defensive back next season, both considered entering the winter portal before agreeing to return to Tennessee.

“You kept hearing rumblings all spring that [Iamaleava] one way or the other wouldn’t be here in the fall,” one Tennessee source told ESPN. “A lot of people were surprised he missed that practice, but it wasn’t the first time he missed something he was supposed to be at, so I don’t know if anybody should have really been that surprised.”

According to Tennessee sources, talks continued into the spring between the collective and Iamaleava’s side. There had been opportunities in place for Iamaleava to make “well into the six figures” in additional NIL earnings, one source said, if he agreed to certain appearances and requests, but he declined to do so.

Even though Iamaleava participated in spring practice, sources told ESPN that a general uneasiness still lingered throughout the program and athletic department about whether the quarterback would stick around for the 2025 season.

“We were just hoping we could make it to December [2025], and then we knew he was gone, either to the NFL or transferring somewhere else,” a source within the Tennessee program said.


AS TENNESSEE’S SPRING practice reached its final week, sources said Iamaleava told at least one teammate after the Vols’ Wednesday practice that he planned to enter the transfer portal on the Sunday after the spring game.

“I’m getting in the portal, if you need to handle your business,” Iamaleava said as he was walking off the practice field, according to a Tennessee player who heard him say it.

One of the teammates went to Heupel to alert him. Heupel met with Iamaleava to make sure everything was OK and didn’t mention anything about the information coming from teammates, and Iamaleava assured his coach that everything was good and that it was “all a bunch of rumors.”

The following day, a report from On3 emerged that Iamaleava and Tennessee were in “active negotiations” for a new deal. Iamaleava’s camp tells a wholly different story. Cordell Landers, an adviser who previously worked as assistant director of player personnel at Florida under Dan Mullen, and Iamaleava’s father took to social media to adamantly deny that negotiations were taking place.

Iamaleava does not have an agent. His team of advisers includes his father and Landers, who has been close with Nic since high school, as well as sports attorney Michael Huyghue, the former commissioner of the United Football League.

Sources close to the quarterback insist they’ve had zero conversions with Heupel or Spyre since January regarding his deal and deny they were seeking $4 million, even going so far as to suggest Nico was already making that much. “The family is happy with Tennessee,” a source told ESPN that night, in response to the On3 report. “Nico is happy. We’re good.” But the report itself sowed far more distrust and a suspicion that Tennessee coaches or the NIL collective was responsible for leaking information.

“It was a false narrative and they took that s— and ran with it,” a source close to Iamaleava said. “It became bigger than what it was, when it wasn’t even the case.”

As his phone blew up Thursday with calls and texts, Iamaleava was blindsided. He still attended a dinner along with his fellow Tennessee quarterbacks Thursday night at the home of Joey Halzle, Tennessee’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

But later that night, sources close to Iamaleava say he reached his breaking point. He couldn’t understand why the reports were coming out, where they came from or whom he could trust going forward, and he felt pressured to make a decision about his future. He was ready to leave, sources said, but his father encouraged him to sleep on the decision.

That next morning, Iamaleava didn’t show up for Friday’s practice or meetings and didn’t alert anyone in the program.

Nic Iamaleava urged his son to go in and meet face-to-face with Heupel and his coaches to work things out, but Iamaleava felt betrayed, sources said, and did not speak with Heupel on Friday. Several people within the Vols’ program tried to reach out to the quarterback to no avail.

“He’s hurt and he’s disappointed,” a source close to Iamaleava said Friday morning. “They’re making him look like the villain and the scapegoat.”

On Friday night, Iamaleava called Halzle to inform him that he was completing his paperwork and planned to enter the transfer portal when it opened April 16.

“He was never a troublemaker,” a Tennessee source said, “worked hard and didn’t cause problems in the locker room. He was quiet and kept to himself a lot, sort of had that California cool to him, but it’s unfair to paint him as a bad kid.”

Iamaleava’s locker was cleared out early Saturday morning before Heupel told the team its starting quarterback would no longer be part of the team.

“I want to thank him for everything he’s done since he’s gotten here, as a recruit and who he was as a player and how he competed inside the building,” Heupel said after the spring game. “Obviously, we’re moving forward as a program without him. I said it to the guys today. There’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T. That includes me.”


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UCLA’s Foster talks about landing ‘No. 1 player in portal’ Iamaleava

UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster opens up about how the Bruins were able to land Nico Iamaleava in the transfer portal.

REGARDLESS OF THE drama, UCLA’s ability to land Iamaleava after his surprise departure from Tennessee is considered a major move. And now his brother Madden — the nation’s No. 145 recruit last year — is also transferring to UCLA in a package deal that elevates expectations for the program.

“When’s the last time we had this many people here talking to us?” Foster asked Tuesday. “You guys know what I’m saying, so this is a good buzz for us.”

Arkansas’s NIL collective, Arkansas Edge, is expected to attempt to recoup some of the money it paid to Madden Iamaleava, a source told ESPN, after he had signed a one-year agreement but departed within two months of joining the program. Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek announced Tuesday that he’ll support those efforts because “enforcement of these agreements is vital in our new world of college athletics.”

Once it became clear Nico Iamaleava could be on his way to Westwood, representatives for Aguilar began evaluating their options. Aguilar continued to participate in practice with the Bruins last Friday despite reports that a commitment from Iamaleava appeared imminent. UCLA coaches notified the quarterbacks of their decision Sunday. Less than 24 hours later, Aguilar was back in the transfer portal.

Tennessee inquired with the agents of several Big 12, Big Ten and ACC starting quarterbacks about the possibility they would become available in the transfer portal, sources said, a tactic that has become commonplace across the sport as players increasingly seek representation. But it’s not easy to pry one away in the spring with most returning starters already locked into seven-figure deals with their current teams. Illinois’ Luke Altmyer, TCU’s Josh Hoover and Kansas State’s Avery Johnson were all rumored to be interests of Tennessee but couldn’t be flipped, according to sources.

“We got a damned wall built around him,” a Kansas State source told ESPN, referring to Johnson. “They better bring the Tennessee National Guard.”

In the end, Tennessee’s best option ended up being the quarterback who had to leave UCLA.

And now the Iamaleava-Aguilar swap will be closely watched from coast to coast this season.

“You want to be in conversations,” Foster said Tuesday, “you want to play big-time ball, you want to have haters, you want all this stuff because that means that you’re trending in the right direction, so if you want to play big-time ball, you can do that at UCLA.”

ESPN college football writer Paolo Uggetti contributed to this report.

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