Hypothetical - would Tennessee take him back?

No. And even if he wins the Heisman trophy it won't bother me that I said that.

Edit: What I do hope is that he doesn't get paid more than we offered. And nothing personal about that. Everybody that follows college sports will be interested in how that turns out and if he doesn't it will probably keep some players that think about doing the same thing from doing it.
That’s a good point. him not getting what he actually wanted is a great precedent to reign in some of this NIL madness
 
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Even if he has a case that he was lied to, he was promised things, etc, etc..... he's destroyed any goodwill he could've gotten by STATING his side of it.
There is plenty of time to still learn Nico's side. It's possible the staff wasn't taking him or his side seriously until he actually sat out the day before O&W game. Maybe they pushed his talk aside thinking he wouldn't leave. Both may have called each other's bluff.

Also, Nico could have been told professionally to just stay quiet. Any public talking could cause further damage. It's the whole thought process that anything said could be used against you, and right now, everyone is looking to be mad at him. He will have plenty of opportunity to share his side down the line if he wishes. It's also been noted that it could be a cultural, patriarchal, thing for Nico to listen to his dad and follow any orders he gives. I get he is technically an adult, but he is still only 20 years old and may not be perfect at knowing how to address all these things.
 
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There is plenty of time to still learn Nico's side. It's possible the staff wasn't taking him or his side seriously until he actually sat out the day before O&W game. Maybe they pushed his talk aside thinking he wouldn't leave. Both may have called each other's bluff.

Also, Nico could have been told professionally to just stay quiet. Any public talking could cause further damage. It's the whole thought process that anything said could be used against you, and right now, everyone is looking to be mad at him. He will have plenty of opportunity to share his side down the line if he wishes. It's also been noted that it could be a cultural, patriarchal, thing for Nico to listen to his dad and follow any orders he gives. I get he is technically an adult, but he is still only 20 years old and may not be perfect at knowing how to address all these things.
I can go with the possibility that he's following his Dad's lead because culturally that's what is expected. I'm told he's a father himself. I'm unsure culturally when the "Dad's the boss" era ends but he's got a child and he's got his own career made of his own sweat. At some point Nico needs to be "Dad's the boss" of his own family.

Nico's DMs aren't the only ones lighting up. Coach Heupel's probably getting asked about Nico and the inside story and, like Dan Lanning called Coach Heupel, these guys have some honor along with their competition.

Maybe Nico or his people are talking to coaches and telling their side privately. If it comes down to Heupel's word vs Nico's word about what was promised, it doesn't end well for Nico ESPECIALLY since his side was already sniffing around for more money. Unless he's got some good proof that Heupel promised things and didn't deliver, it looks like he tried to leverage the late leaving for money.

Extremely weird in all this is that I've not seen a report of any teammates saying anything...... positive or negative. Nothing. I know Saban had a hard policy about team issues showing up on social media and maybe Heupel has adopted the same hard line. If that's a Josh Heupel policy, he's still got control of the locker room.
 
There is plenty of time to still learn Nico's side. It's possible the staff wasn't taking him or his side seriously until he actually sat out the day before O&W game. Maybe they pushed his talk aside thinking he wouldn't leave. Both may have called each other's bluff.

Also, Nico could have been told professionally to just stay quiet. Any public talking could cause further damage. It's the whole thought process that anything said could be used against you, and right now, everyone is looking to be mad at him. He will have plenty of opportunity to share his side down the line if he wishes. It's also been noted that it could be a cultural, patriarchal, thing for Nico to listen to his dad and follow any orders he gives. I get he is technically an adult, but he is still only 20 years old and may not be perfect at knowing how to address all these things.
??

Heupel's the coach. His job is not to make Nico look good in a given year but to win games, with Nico or not. You're implying he'd have either made Nico promises he didn't keep, or that Nico and his dad should be telling hype how to recruit and extracting promises. Let the Iamaleava family become coaches, do their own evaluations and work like men possessed to build a team, and run their own program.

We don't need Nico's 'side of the story'; we're paying Heupel to run the program. P*ss on players, family, or agents who think they can hijack that.
 
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He's gone. He probably does have a deal in place. My guess is it's either with UCLA, Washington or Arizona State, maybe even BYU or Utah? I don't think he's getting $4 million though. He simply isn't worth that much.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and rule BYU out.

While the school has a large number of Samoan players as a result of their overseas missions-I have not seen any indication Nico or family is LDS.

Can't really see Nico living by their honor code either.

Utah-isnt Cam Rising back for like his 27th college year? Whittingham doesn't really seem like the type that would invite the circus to town anyway.
 
If Nico, not his dad or agent, called CJH today and apologized would Tennessee take him back?

Would Tennessee put stipulations on welcoming him back like, your dad can no longer manipulate our success and thus has to “stay away?”

Would the team welcome him back? Would he need to go on an apology tour?

I ask this bc I believe Tennessee did the right thing, however, this is still not an ideal situation. I’m sure we all were excited to see Nico with his 3rd year in the system and 2nd year as a starter take massive leaps in progress. And before you answer, I’m as annoyed by this as anyone but it’s a dagger to lose your QB roughly 4 months before the season kickoff.
I would not take him back. First of all he performed just an average sec qb, not bad, just average. I would go with the two we have and try and get another as a backup.
 
I am shocked how everyone is on Tennessee’s side. Talk radio, mainstream media, etc. I have yet to hear a single person defend Nico. I think this is going to be irreparable harm to him and I wonder if he even makes the same amount at the next program. Besides that summer camp is just around the corner and there is no way Nico learns a new system that fast so he is set up for failure. His dad really screwed him over which is a shame considering everything I have heard is he is a good kid. He is definitely screwed now though.
I don't think Nico had a good understanding of Hypes system after two years under him, thus the plays were much slower this year. Couldn't get the plays in as fast as usual, and thats after two years. How he gona learn a new system in one?
 
I still don't think the whole story is being shared from Nico's side. I think it is entirely possible Nico looked around the offensive room and felt there wasn't enough done in the offseason to improve this offense. We also don't know what, if any, changes were made from a playbook perspective.

Let's be honest. We added some 3 star RB from Duke and some 3 star WR transfers in the portal along with some low 4 star freshman WRs. That isn't necessarily a huge investment to the offense. It's a bunch of developmental pieces that may or may not turn out to be helpful this season. For all we know, Nico could have been promised premier help, didn't receive any, gave them a chance in spring practice, but came away unimpressed.

Fir
We do know he wanted more money. UT did exactly what they agreed on from the beginning, Nico also agreed to a contract. But decided he did not want to go by that contract, and wanted more. First of all he is not worth more. In sec play only 9 td and about 200 yards passing per game. That put him about the middle of the pack in sec qb.
 
He's a traitor in every sense of the word.
No that is not happening. Even hypothetical.
Fans from every SEC school are applauding CJH.
This was national news all weekend and UTAD and CJH were being heralded as the heroes of this story. Rightly so. Enough is enough. This will be in the history books as turning point of the NIL.
 
Too many people making waaaay too many judgments based on a sketchy timeline and lots of unfounded rumors. Even so, CJH couldn't bring him back bc of how far the fan base alone has downgraded him. It would take another year and some solid evidence of a lot of right doing to even get the atmosphere right now.
 
??

Heupel's the coach. His job is not to make Nico look good in a given year but to win games, with Nico or not. You're implying he'd have either made Nico promises he didn't keep, or that Nico and his dad should be telling hype how to recruit and extracting promises. Let the Iamaleava family become coaches, do their own evaluations and work like men possessed to build a team, and run their own program.

We don't need Nico's 'side of the story'; we're paying Heupel to run the program. P*ss on players, family, or agents who think they can hijack that.
You don't have to a professional football analyst to be underwhelmed with Tennessee's transfer portal additions. I think anyone in Nico's position would have thought there would be a greater investment into the offense after losing so many pieces. The reality is, these players have more leverage than they have ever had. They are either going to use that leverage to improve their pay or situation, or go elsewhere. This is what happens in the wild west of contract negotiations. Until there are mutually agreed structures in place players will always have someone in their ear telling them the grass is greener somewhere else, etc.
 
You don't have to a professional football analyst to be underwhelmed with Tennessee's transfer portal additions. I think anyone in Nico's position would have thought there would be a greater investment into the offense after losing so many pieces. The reality is, these players have more leverage than they have ever had. They are either going to use that leverage to improve their pay or situation, or go elsewhere. This is what happens in the wild west of contract negotiations. Until there are mutually agreed structures in place players will always have someone in their ear telling them the grass is greener somewhere else, etc.
You don't have to be a professional analyst to be underwhelmed with his performance against SEC opposition either.
 
You don't have to a professional football analyst to be underwhelmed with Tennessee's transfer portal additions. I think anyone in Nico's position would have thought there would be a greater investment into the offense after losing so many pieces. The reality is, these players have more leverage than they have ever had. They are either going to use that leverage to improve their pay or situation, or go elsewhere. This is what happens in the wild west of contract negotiations. Until there are mutually agreed structures in place players will always have someone in their ear telling them the grass is greener somewhere else, etc.
Pruitt-era infractions leave the squad 2-3 players short. They've stacked the OL with young talent that Elarbee says have developed ahead of schedule https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/tennessee-vols-coach-eases-big-concern-that-ut-fans-have-for-the-2025-college-football-season/ar-AA1uzUjb#:~:text=Beyond%20Sanders%2C%20the%20Vols%20will,they're%20so%20far%20ahead. and the two guys they brought in will either start or be #2, bringing some depth and field leadership.

Everyone is well aware of the leverage players have, but they don't get to run the program. Nico should have worried more about earning his check than about Heupel earning his. Now he has his first real-life lesson in business; it's nice to be heard by the boss, but when he makes his decision you've got your marching orders. And if you'd rather listen to every siren you imagine is singing your song, there's the door.
 
You don't have to a professional football analyst to be underwhelmed with Tennessee's transfer portal additions. I think anyone in Nico's position would have thought there would be a greater investment into the offense after losing so many pieces. The reality is, these players have more leverage than they have ever had. They are either going to use that leverage to improve their pay or situation, or go elsewhere. This is what happens in the wild west of contract negotiations. Until there are mutually agreed structures in place players will always have someone in their ear telling them the grass is greener somewhere else, etc.
Personally, I think the explanation that the Iamaleava camp just wanted Tennessee to be more aggressive in the transfer portal is pure spin.

They saw Carson Beck getting $4 million for 1 season from Miami and they wanted that kind of money for themselves. It was a combination of greed and a lack of self-awareness. Nico isn't as good as Carson Beck. He is talented with a strong upside .... but his entourage is kidding themselves if they think he's worth $4 million for just one season.
 
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