Nico not at practice today

I have a friend at work who's son is currently attending UT and is friends with some people on the football team. Apparently his son was told today straight from a member of the football team that it was nico and 2 OL potentially on the way out and oregon had offered to double his pay nicos pay. I dont know how true any of that is but my friend has no reason to lie.
We got 2 OL that teams want to poach?
 
We don't have two OL worth them poaching. Two just transferred in. Sanders isn't going to jump ship a month after getting here, and Heard is the only one I see anyone having any interest in. The rest of them haven't even played enough for anyone to know what they can do.

So yeah, I don't believe a word of this.

Everything I hear is USC. Nico just lost most of his leverage with the stupid walkout though because now USC knows we are not upping our bid to keep him. I don't see any sort of bidding war starting up to see who can be the most disappointed when there is only one team interested.
Whomever is offering him knows that he has now lost leverage....we are not keeping him. They can likely offer him less now because they know they do. not have to beat us anymore....bridge is burned.
 
We paid him to ride the bench. Stuck with him and paid him through hus 1st year starting struggles. Now it's time to hopefully reap the rewards, he is snooping around. I hope the kid stays, but this debacle is bad for all of college football. Really leaves a spur taste in your mouth.
 
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I've said it before. When Gaston Moore came in the offense seemed quicker and fluid. Yes he absolutely threw interceptions. He was just the next guy with playing experience . Point is ,with the right guy this team will be fine.

Remember when people were saying Josh was talking too much in Nicos helmet and just needed to let him play his game? There's a reason Josh was taking to him.
 
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Whomever is offering him knows that he has now lost leverage....we are not keeping him. They can likely offer him less now because they know they do. not have to beat us anymore....bridge is burned.
Which is kind of funny because dad got out over his skis trying to shop his son and leverage programs against each other only for Nico to likely have to accept less money when all this shakes out. Few will want to to touch this s*** show for any amount of money at all, especially for a guy ended up being overrated and way underperformed. His dad may have put the screws to him on this one. Good job, Pops! It just wasn’t enough, was it?
 
Which is kind of funny because dad got out over his skis trying to shop his son and leverage programs against each other only for Nico to likely have to accept less money when all this shakes out. Few will want to to touch this s*** show for any amount of money at all, especially for a guy ended up being overrated and way underperformed. His dad may have put the screws to him on this one. Good job, Pops! It just wasn’t enough, was it?
I’d be shocked if they don’t already have the deal done at the new school. But I’ve been shocked before.
 
We paid him to ride the bench. Stuck with him and paid him through hus 1st year starting struggles. Now it's time to hopefully reap the rewards, he is snooping around. I hope the kid stays, but this debacle is bad for all of college football. Really leaves a spur taste in your mouth.
That must hurt.
 
I’d be shocked if they don’t already have the deal done at the new school. But I’ve been shocked before.
Well, the other side of that is…was Nico’s performance strong enough at UT for another team to pay him more than $2M + a year? I mean, how many schools are going to look at his body of work at Tennessee and sign up for $2.5M, $3M/yr or more? Wasn’t he/his dad asking for close to $4M? Idk 🤷‍♂️
We will see.
 
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TN should only offer Nico incentive based deal to earn more that's how NFL contracts are written above the base guarantee. Now for all those who are just saying hit the road jack if Nico was coming into this season as Heisman favorite the same would be saying pay him his 4 million. Many on here was screaming to pay Mike Matthew's more. Let's all look at this as business as it is not personal. If he achieves certain goals like 10 regular season wins next Sec Championship next final 4 of Playoff and final National Championship he earns his way up to 4 million. Let's treat this as Pro contract. If he says No then job belongs to Merk. In CHRIST Alone
 
As much as I hate to say it-buh bye. We ARE NOT a playoff team this coming season

Nico has been a huge disappointment and his hands out family are getting a bit annoying.

Perhaps his brother at Arkansas will live up to the hype.

Let George and Meerk battle it out for this season and probably next. Whoever loses the battle is probably gone next year anyway. Faison coming in next season to take over after getting a bit of experience.

We are not in bad shape

Difference between 8 and 9 wins this coming season is just not worth all the nonsense.

I can't help but think that the 2 freshman QBs were pushing him a little and he felt the heat of their presence. If this is true, didn't want him because this is one trait that separates winners from losers.
I had this feeling after reading many practice reports about Nico throwing high again, and hearing that Merk was having a stellar Spring. Maybe Nico exposed himself that he's afraid of competition, and Heupel called his hand when he asked for money.
We paid him to ride the bench. Stuck with him and paid him through hus 1st year starting struggles. Now it's time to hopefully reap the rewards, he is snooping around. I hope the kid stays, but this debacle is bad for all of college football. Really leaves a spur taste in your mouth.
This was a setup by Team Nico his freshman year when his Dad asked for a redshirt year, banking 4 years of eligibility so he could opt out later and transfer out back to the West coast. If Nico was any damn good he wouldn't have needed 4 years anyway. He should've played at least 8 games his frosh year to get experience.

Hopefully, Danny W can see he got played by Team Nico and terminated UT's contract with Nico today.

BTW, UT thinking they were ahead of the NIL game with Spyre, came back to bite them in the azz... to offer a HS kid $2M/yr straight up with no buyout clause was asking for a disaster, and that's what we got.
 
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I don't think Heupel puts himself in great danger. I think Heupel and every other football program are already in great danger no matter what he does.

if you let Nico walk, som SEC team will scoop him up and beat us over the head with him and simultaneously signal to the country that TN isn't a place good QBs should think about dealing with.

if you negotiate with him and give him what we wants, the next QB will just ask for more.

Without better regulations or collision by the power football programs to all agree to only pay x amount, then the bleeding will continue indefinitely.
Nico hasn't shown he's good enough to beat us over the head - it could be quite the opposite ...
 
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