How'd you Feel as a Parent or Family?

[madbamahater]

I don't think everyone should give the Nico camp all the bad crap and give him a pass that's what ppl have been doing for 3 years. Per coach's and big donors, he was no shows at important autograph session and got some passes on failing to live up to his NIL contracts as far as NIL appearances, seems he became the rock star in his own mind that lets everyone around him down while failing to look in the mirror. Sometimes it's just the man in the mirror and they were a lot of enablers on here giving him excuse after excuse for not living up to his $$$ asking.

If this is true about him no showing and basically not caring, then the Vols should've parted ways already.

There were times he looked like he no showed on the football field, too. Especially in the first half of nearly all games in 2024.

 

[Orangeslice13]

Yeah but, using your concrete scenario, what he did (or what it appears he did anyway) was not show up to work after demanding double the money. Now he’s been fired from his “job” and is hoping someone else pays him that double salary. Is that smart in the long run? If that’s what he did, there are certainly far better ways to handle the situation.

There’s no way this makes sense unless he already knows where he’s going.
If he doesn’t know where then he’s seriously misplayed his had and the timing could not be worse for him

 

[The Original Fade]

Because the only person that commitment would mean anything to would be him. Because, god forbid, he suffers some horrific injury next season, his earning potential is over, football wise anyway. And if he can instead walk away from that having made 4 million for this season instead of 2 million(or whatever the exact numbers end up being), he should.

No amount of love from fans of a team is going to support his family. No amount of 10 years later the university bringing him in for a "legends night" or whatever is going to support his family either.

It sucks as a fan, but I'm never going to be mad at someone for doing what's best for them and theirs.

Why would he need to support his family with NIL money? I thought that’s what a degree is for.

 

[CAVPUT]

If your son was the starting QB at a historical top 10 football school, coming off a 10-2 season, made first ever expanded playoff, on one of the hottest programs around currently, at a school that is literally on FIRE in all sports across the board and just like that it's GONE. Just gone in the blink of an eye. Not because of injury or some other situation to no fault of his own. Just gone because of a dumbass decision. Wow.

If Dad is really the driving force, shame on him and I truly worry for his mental health if he's in that bad of a controlling situation and relationship.

Image telling your kid some day you went from being the starting QB at Tennessee to possibly the starting QB at Butthole State.....

I don't think Nico will end up at a "butthole state" type program. Someone will take his physical talent believing they can bring it all together all while keeping the clan at arms length. I think a USC, UCLA, Washington type program would certainly take a shot although not at his price tag. Kinda see this one playing out in similar fashion to the RB from Ole Miss. Remains to be seen if he can develop into the complete package tho. For me, I'm gonna file him right along side Brian Darden and Chris Donald in my UT "bust" HOF. While his career at UT certainly wasn't as bad as those two, the hype and money surrounding Nico when considered alongside his performance and departure elevates him to that status in my eyes. He may blow up and contend for the heistman this year and be an all-pro down the line, but for his time here.....right up there with the most disappointing Vol careers in my mind.

 

[StuckInBamaVol]

if this is true, Nico just cared about the money and no one else. Couldn’t even honor his NIL

 

[Elhanan]

Not the first time a player and/or their family set a promising career on fire before it’s even fully developed.

The call of the void is too strong for some.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

If your son was the starting QB at a historical top 10 football school, coming off a 10-2 season, made first ever expanded playoff, on one of the hottest programs around currently, at a school that is literally on FIRE in all sports across the board and just like that it's GONE. Just gone in the blink of an eye. Not because of injury or some other situation to no fault of his own. Just gone because of a dumbass decision. Wow.

If Dad is really the driving force, shame on him and I truly worry for his mental health if he's in that bad of a controlling situation and relationship.

Image telling your kid some day you went from being the starting QB at Tennessee to possibly the starting QB at Butthole State.....

This decision needed to be made a couple of years ago when this crap started getting out of hand. Now other college programs need to grow some gonads and clean up their programs.

 

[utvolpj]

if this is true, Nico just cared about the money and no one else. Couldn’t even honor his NIL

I think most reports say they're all very hard to deal with regarding their obligations.

 

[djwes]

If my kid was making 2 million a year to play college ball at Tennessee I’d be telling him he needs to be pissing orange with devotion. I was watching a segment on Outkick where they brought up the point that Nico may get his 4 million elsewhere, but he likely hurt himself in the long run making much more as a NFL QB.

Or UGA, UF, Texas, etc. Any school that’s shown you this much love is a good spot.

 

[djwes]

There are only a small group of quarterbacks that were maybe making more money than him.

For school to be willing to pay 4 million a year for a quarterback, they’ve got to be in a desperate position.

Which likely means they short in other areas as well.

 

[JBVolunteer]

The whole situation is messy, but from a branding, locker room, and leadership standpoint? This may be the biggest self-inflicted L not only of the NIL era but in college athletics history.

Nico built NI8 apparel around Tennessee loyalty (“Vol for Life”), a clean, quiet-leader persona and a hometown hero narrative for Vol fans who were all-in on his ceiling.

But now? He bailed on spring practice, reportedly over money. Let his brand be bigger than the locker room, and it backfired. His NIL identity is so tied to Tennessee that it doesn’t easily translate to another school… Who’s buying NI8 gear at UCLA or Michigan now? Nobody.

The trust equity is gone.

There’s still going to be interest—the kid’s talent is real. But the Power 5 coaches watching how this played out are thinking, “If I bring this guy in, is he going to ghost my program if the collective doesn’t meet his number?”

Programs like USC, Oregon, and FSU already have elite QB talent.

Group of Five teams may offer a starting role, but at a lower NIL tier and spotlight

He will land a spot… but as a plug-and-play QB with something to prove—not a face-of-the-program guy.

This goes beyond just NIL. Josh Heupel benching him is the strongest statement yet about “no player is above the team.” Younger Vols and fans looked up to Nico as a future legend. He had the keys to Knoxville. Now? It’s Karma Bowl 2025 every time he steps on a field. Even if he tears it up somewhere else, he lost a legacy—not just a roster spot.

Final thoughts:
He could’ve been the Peyton Manning of the NIL era—a homegrown, humble brand who wins and gets paid.

Instead, he’ll be the cautionary tale in every future NIL & leadership seminar.

And that sucks… because the talent is real. The moment? He just fumbled it.

 

[Delmar]

The whole situation is messy, but from a branding, locker room, and leadership standpoint? This may be the biggest self-inflicted L not only of the NIL era but in college athletics history.

Nico built NI8 apparel around Tennessee loyalty (“Vol for Life”), a clean, quiet-leader persona and a hometown hero narrative for Vol fans who were all-in on his ceiling.

But now? He bailed on spring practice, reportedly over money. Let his brand be bigger than the locker room, and it backfired. His NIL identity is so tied to Tennessee that it doesn’t easily translate to another school… Who’s buying NI8 gear at UCLA or Michigan now? Nobody.

The trust equity is gone.

There’s still going to be interest—the kid’s talent is real. But the Power 5 coaches watching how this played out are thinking, “If I bring this guy in, is he going to ghost my program if the collective doesn’t meet his number?”

Programs like USC, Oregon, and FSU already have elite QB talent.

Group of Five teams may offer a starting role, but at a lower NIL tier and spotlight

He will land a spot… but as a plug-and-play QB with something to prove—not a face-of-the-program guy.

This goes beyond just NIL. Josh Heupel benching him is the strongest statement yet about “no player is above the team.” Younger Vols and fans looked up to Nico as a future legend. He had the keys to Knoxville. Now? It’s Karma Bowl 2025 every time he steps on a field. Even if he tears it up somewhere else, he lost a legacy—not just a roster spot.

Final thoughts:
He could’ve been the Peyton Manning of the NIL era—a homegrown, humble brand who wins and gets paid.

Instead, he’ll be the cautionary tale in every future NIL & leadership seminar.

And that sucks… because the talent is real. The moment? He just fumbled it.

I find it hard to believe that he-who-shall-remain-nameless is going to be able to go to a team and learn the offense well enough in pre-season practice to be QB1 next fall unless said team has absolutely no one already.

 

[Starchief13VFL]

Uhhhh....he signed a contract. Then he wanted to renegotiate the signed contract....when TN balked he said F.U. to the team, the coaches, the school, and the fans. I say F.U. to Nico & his fatass money-grubbing daddy. #GBO

“Uhhhh….. he signed a contract “. Have you not followed sports for the last 50 years??

 

[Rushin Orange Collusion]

Hard to say at this point ….. Butthole State may be accurate, but some other program will throw money at him based on his potential….UCLA? Washington? Colorado?….. he could develop into a top tier qb…. Will he? Who knows…. He might just end up a Butthole alum.

Some school will take a flyer on him and view it as a “no harm, no foul” opportunity. His leverage is down so a school could get him on the cheap, comparatively speaking.

 

[CAVPUT]

There are only a small group of quarterbacks that were maybe making more money than him.

For school to be willing to pay 4 million a year for a quarterback, they’ve got to be in a desperate position.

Which likely means they short in other areas as well.

And being short in other offensive positions is not a selling point for a guy looking to enhance his draft stock. And for 4m one would assume that he is an NFL caliber prospect. Not sure how this plays out, but I just don't see us diving headlong into another expensive QB prospect right now.

 

[Illinoisvolfan2]

Just saw this on vol fan Facebook group. Apparently(allegedly) Dan Lanning notified CJH that Nico’s dad was “shopping him around”

If true, kudos to Lanning

 

[hUTch2002]

There’s no way this makes sense unless he already knows where he’s going.
If he doesn’t know where then he’s seriously misplayed his had and the timing could not be worse for him

Agreed. At this point we’re all just guessing as we don’t know the full story and he hasn’t even landed somewhere officially yet.

 

[hUTch2002]

I don't think everyone should give the Nico camp all the bad crap and give him a pass that's what ppl have been doing for 3 years. Per coach's and big donors, he was no shows at important autograph session and got some passes on failing to live up to his NIL contracts as far as NIL appearances, seems he became the rock star in his own mind that lets everyone around him down while failing to look in the mirror. Sometimes it's just the man in the mirror and they were a lot of enablers on here giving him excuse after excuse for not living up to his $$$ asking.

It’s not up to us to hold him accountable though. That’s Nico’s partners in the NIL contract and the coaches. All we do on here is share our opinions in whatever so we don’t enable, give passes or whatever. Now those in a position to hold him accountable might be doing those things. Then again, they might not. We don’t know the whole story. The same things happens at my job. My reports might not think someone has been held accountable for something because they don’t see the HR meetings, written warnings or whatever.

 

[hUTch2002]

How about we flip that question: So throw away a substantial amount of financial security for his family, future wife/kids, etc, just to stick with a university for the next year or two?

His teammates aren't going to fund his and his family's future. If Nico stayed here and had his career ended by injury today in the O&W game or in some game this coming season, his teammates aren't going to crowdfund an extra 2 million for him. If something horrible happens and Nico lost his life after this season, his teammates aren't going to make sure his family never wants/needs for anything. They've got their own families they have to do that for.

Sucks that life costs money and it has to be that way, but alas, here we are.

A couple points:

1. $2M a year is a crap ton of money. His total deal was $8M. That’s more money than most will ever make over their lifetime. Even if you assume he lives 80 more years, that’s $100K a year without even adjusting for not working the last 20 of that (if we’re a typical worker) and many other factors. He has made enough money to live, especially if he continues to bring in any kind of income. Of course, that’s if he doesn’t spend like there’s no tomorrow.
2. I guarantee he has some kind of injury insurance with a large limit.

I’m all for the kid getting paid but pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered, as the saying goes.

 

[loservol]

And being short in other offensive positions is not a selling point for a guy looking to enhance his draft stock. And for 4m one would assume that he is an NFL caliber prospect. Not sure how this plays out, but I just don't see us diving headlong into another expensive QB prospect right now.

Which means he will be lowballed, stashed on the roster of a school who is set at starter this year, and he will have to crack open a playbook to earn playing time and maybe in 3 more years will finally play to his recruiting star potential.

 

[goooooovols]

I’ll give my two cents….

My son is a relatively good basketball player in our town, a freshman 6’3” who looks to finish growing at 6’5-6 maybe. Had a decent freshman year, worked hard to get lots of opportunities during the end of our season. My feeling is they could have used him a bit differently but the school runs a bit of a unique offense which consistently wins and produces really good varsity teams. For my kid this means he’s scaling back some of what he can do on the basketball court. He’s been approach by two open enroll schools that would like him to play for them where he could play more freely. From a parent standpoint we’ve stuck by the message that he’s made a commitment since elementary to his teammates, coaches and family to be the best player he can be within the offense. We feel this is an important teaching moment for life that will carry on into him as he starts a family, career and so on.

The easy thing would be to jump to something that suits him personally better, the hard thing is work hard and thrive in the system he’s worked in thus far. This means knocking down every shot he gets, playing super tough defense and working as a team to win.

I see a lot of parallels…. More money is great but to me if that’s the reason you are here it’s the wrong reason. As an NFL executive I can’t imagine building a team around someone who makes decisions like that, I feel like I’d go out of my way to take the next best talent who’s invested in growing my team as opposed to his wallet. Both are obtainable with a little humility and being realistic about personal worth.

 

[Orangethumb]

I can imagine NILco's team is regretting their decisions by now. I don't see him getting paid $4m anywhere.

 

[deatojl]

How about we flip that question: So throw away a substantial amount of financial security for his family, future wife/kids, etc, just to stick with a university for the next year or two?

His teammates aren't going to fund his and his family's future. If Nico stayed here and had his career ended by injury today in the O&W game or in some game this coming season, his teammates aren't going to crowdfund an extra 2 million for him. If something horrible happens and Nico lost his life after this season, his teammates aren't going to make sure his family never wants/needs for anything. They've got their own families they have to do that for.

Sucks that life costs money and it has to be that way, but alas, here we are.

So, let's flip it another way. If you have a beautiful daughter who is engaged to great guy who would do anything for her, treats her like an absolute queen, and has a great job making $250K a year. Would you secretly go around to any other guy you could find who makes twice that amount to find her someone else to marry? If you found someone, would you encourage her to go to her fiancé demanding he get a job making more money? If he tells her no, would you have her wait until the wedding day, then no show and run off with the other guy?

 

[LargeOrange1]

“Uhhhh….. he signed a contract “. Have you not followed sports for the last 50 years??

Apparently, you're much older than me. Thanks Gramps.

 

[hound dog hillbil]

The nil needs to be contractual, if u break it u owe said funs back,or 50 percent, and ineligible for year,letem ride pine,till they realize.