When the Tennessee Vols lost quarterback Nico Iamaleava to the NCAA transfer portal in April, there were some folks who suggested that UT football would be better off without the former five-star quarterback.

Former Florida Gators head coach Steve Spurrier, in fact, said earlier this month that he believes Tennessee is better off with Joey Aguilar at quarterback than with Nico Iamaleava.

“But I think Tennessee is much better off with this new quarterback (Joey Aguilar), than the one they had (Nico Iamaleava),” said Spurrier. “It’s funny how that happens. Sometimes you think this guy’s the best in the world, and then all of a sudden, another guy jumps in there — he’s quite better.”

That may seem like an odd statement considering Iamaleava is a former five-star recruit who helped the Vols reach the College Football Playoff last season.

But that’s apparently how folks at Tennessee feel. And it seems like Tennessee may have started feeling that way before the spring drama with Iamaleava went down.

Tennessee source says the Vols “had probably gotten as much value out of Nico” as they were going to get

A Vols source told CBS Sports’ John Talty and Chris Hummer this week that Tennessee “had probably gotten as much value out of Nico” as they were going to get after last season’s trip to the College Football Playoff.

The source also told CBS Sports that the program doesn’t regret signing Iamaleava during the 2023 recruiting cycle because it helped change the perception of Tennessee.

 “I still believe it was a worthwhile thing that we did,” said the source to CBS Sports. “Getting Nico changed the perception of our program at a time where it was reeling from (Jeremy) Pruitt. Five-star quarterbacks move the needle. We got to the playoff. I did think after the playoff game we had probably gotten as much value out of Nico as we were going to get.”

That sounds like Tennessee felt like the program reached its ceiling with Iamaleava as its quarterback last season.

Whether or not that was really the case is something we’ll never know. But it seems clear from that comment that Tennessee was concerned about how successful they could be in 2025 with Iamaleava under center.

The Vols certainly didn’t appear to be anywhere close to Ohio State’s level in the 42-17 playoff loss to the Buckeyes. Iamaleava competed well against the Buckeyes — he showed he’s an incredibly tough player — but he completed just 14-of-31 passes for 104 yards (Nico also rushed for two touchdowns). Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard, meanwhile, passed for 311 yards and two touchdowns in the win against Tennessee.

104 passing yards in the first round of the College Football Playoff isn’t going to win a championship. And it sounds like Tennessee was well-aware of that after the loss to Ohio State.

Did the Vols raise their ceiling by bringing in Aguilar?

I guess we’ll find out over the next 10 regular season games.

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Zach Ragan