Josh Heupel put his mouth where the extra money was Nico Iamaleva.
Iamaleaava became the first apourion of the university football of the null era when it is not practiced on Friday while trying to negotiate a better payment.
Tensions and uncertainty intensified rapidly between the sides and Tennessee eliminated Iamaleava from their list before the spring game on Saturday, and according to the reports declared their intention to enter the transfer portal when it opens on Wednesday.
“It’s the state of university football,” Heupel told the inmate full of a network. “At the end of the day, no one is bigger than the program. That also includes me.
“We have a chance. We have a group of types that are going to give everything for Tennessee. We advance. We have a large group. We are going to compete.”
Iamaleva, a possible selection of the first -round NFL draft in 2026, wanted to renegotiate its treatment of several years and $ 10 million with the school, according to ESPN.
Tennessee realized that the Iamaleava camp had contacted Oregon on a possible transfer, according to the report.
The volunteers will look for another field marshal in Portal-Potentia and a headline, but they play the spring game on Saturday with only two scholarship seafood: the first year student of Red T-shirt Jake Merklinger and the true first-year student George MacIntyre as the backup.
“It’s unfortunate, just the situation and where we are with Nico,” Heupel told journalists after the spring game. “I want to thank you for everything that has been done from the Goths here.”
Heupel, a former runner -up of the Heisman trophy in Oklahoma, said he tried to reach his field marshal now trainer several times after the unexpected not presumed on Friday, but that he had not yet talked to him.
It was clear that the relationship was over at that time, and Huepel put his players on the division before the scrimmage on Saturday.
“Sales of the practice field and there is no communication,” said Heupel.