The annual Orange and White game typically features new players in new spots, but this year’s edition rang true in the most surprising way.
The Tennessee football program wrapped up spring practice on Saturday with the annual scrimmage, but with new faces at the helm after the sudden departure of quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
“Today’s landscape of college football, it’s different from what it has been,” Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel said. “It’s unfortunate just the situation and where we’re at with Nico Iamaleava. I want to thank him for everything that he’s done since he’s gotten here. That’s as a recruit to who he was as a player and how he competed inside of the building, so a great appreciation for that side of it. 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 and that includes me.”
After reports surfaced on Thursday that Iamaleava and Tennessee were discussing a new NIL deal, the quarterback missed Friday’s practice with no communication to the coaching staff. That led to the Volunteer program choosing to go a different direction.
“Friday morning,” Heupel said when asked when it was apparent that Iamalaeava would not be moving forward with the team. “When he was a no-show. You come off the practice field, and there is no communication.”
For Heupel and the Vols, it was better to get the situation handled – one way or another.
“If it’s going to happen, rip the Band-Aid,” Heupel said. “At the end of the day, we got a lot of great work for the two guys that are here, and we got a chance to move forward as a program. It’s unfortunate that just in the landscape of college football that this happens at this point.”
With the departure, that left Tennessee with two quarterbacks on the roster for the spring game as redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre took the helm at the quarterback position. The duo rotated through by alternating series.
“I thought they did a really good job today, for the most part,” Heupel said of MacIntyre and Merklinger. “Obviously, Merk had the one pick on the double move, where the safety is playing in the middle of the field, but for the most part, they handled the operation pretty well.” “There were a couple of checks that we can clean up, just on the operations side of it and the ultimate check, but they moved the football, made plays. Thought they used their feet. Obviously, they weren’t live so they’re going to have to learn how to protect themselves out in space, but it was a great day for both of them as young players, being out in front of that crowd, having to be the guy and go operate.”
MacIntyre opened the scrimmage portion with a 26-yard touchdown to Radarious Jackson, while also throwing a 3-yard score and a four-yard score to Jack Van Dorselaer.
Merklinger found Van Doselaer for a 25-yard touchdown.
“Go have fun and compete today,” Heupel said on his conversation with the two quarterbacks on being the next man up. “It’s not going to be perfect. It never will be. (It’s) the same thing that I said to the team. You know, there’s a way that you got to operate from snap to the whistle, and then you got to learn how to operate from the whistle to the next snap too, and I thought those guys did a good job.”
Now that spring practice has wrapped up and the Vols turn attention to summer – as well as the spring transfer portal which opens on April 16.
“Anytime your roster has the opportunity to change, that’s in December,” Heupel said. “That’s in the spring. As we go through the process, you’re always evaluating what you have on your roster, where you’re vulnerable, where numbers might not be right, injuries, whatever. You’re trying to get your roster where it needs to be to give yourself the best chance when you get to kick off in the fall. Certainly, with only two scholarship players at the quarterback position, we’re going to have to find another gap.”
