Why not push him out the door if he was such a huge problem, as others are saying? Heupel knows the most important thing is winning. If he mis-evaluated Nico, why not fix the problem?
Again, if Nico was such a problem, why not push him into the winter portal and find your new QB then? There were better options then, plus it would have allowed a new QB to go through Spring practice. And no reason to keep Nico around on a crazy NIL deal if he couldn't get it done.
My personal opinion, I'm not sure Nico was the problem people say he was. I thought he played tough in the bowl game and was looking forward to his growth this season. I think the real problem was the family, not the kid. But the kid didn't have the backbone to stand up to his family. As such, I hope he sucks at UCLA, but my fear is he has a spectacular season and makes us look dumb. Why? Because if UCLA can unlock his potential whereas we could not, that's gonna hurt on the recruiting trail. And as for Joey A., I hope he comes here and balls out, but I need to see it. Having great numbers at Appy State isn't the same as playing in the SEC. And we have a lot of question marks going into next season. People seem to think it's a sin to admit that.