Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel made a controversial move, but it was a very intelligent one.
Heupel will go to Dallas on Tuesday to attend SEC Media Days, which acts as the unofficial start to the 2024 season (we’re still over a month away from actual football games, but once SEC Media Days occurs, it’s effectively football season in the south).
Heupel will be accompanied to Dallas by three Tennessee players who will speak with the media throughout the day on Tuesday: offensive lineman Cooper Mays, defensive lineman Omari Thomas, and linebacker Keenan Pili.
Nico Iamaleava, the starting quarterback, will be noticeably absent.
The media would undoubtedly love to speak with Nico on Tuesday. The former five-star prospect has been one of college football’s most talked-about players this offseason. That’s due to his elite playing abilities, humble demeanor, the fact that he’s taking over for Joe Milton as Tennessee’s starting quarterback, and, of course, his lucrative NIL deal, which was the subject of an NCAA investigation earlier this year (resulting in a lawsuit from the state of Tennessee against the NCAA).
The NIL/NCAA investigation is the most likely reason Heupel (and the folks at UT) chose not to bring Iamaleava to Dallas.
And that is definitely the proper decision.
The media, particularly the national media, would definitely want to interview Iamaleava about his NIL contract, how it came about, and the accompanying NCAA investigation/lawsuit that rocked the sport earlier this year. That line of questioning, however, has no favorable implications for Tennessee. The Vols are prepared to move forward from that storyline. The media, for the most part, appears to have already moved on. Why bring that story back into the spotlight by sending Nico to Dallas?
Heupel is making the correct decision by leaving his starting quarterback in Knoxville. This ruling protects both Iamaleava and Tennessee. Heupel doesn’t want to make any major storylines out of SEC Media Days. His goal, as is often the case when dealing with the media, is to get in and out without making a lot of negative/speculative headlines.
