One offseason later, and the picture certainly looks a lot different for both the Tennessee program and Iamaleava.
The 2025 offseason was one of the strangest periods for the Tennessee Vols football program in quite some time. On the eve of the spring game, starting redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava disappeared off the radar and was subsequently dismissed from the program by coach Josh Heupel.
Iamaleava ended up transferring to UCLA, and in a strange twist of fate, quarterback Joey Aguilar, who had just transferred to the Bruins from Appalachian State, came over to Tennessee in what amounted to a trade of starting quarterback candidates…