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Josh Heupel demands Nico Iamaleava transfer referred to as 'the Joey Aguilar situation'

by: Alex Byington05/01/25_AlexByington
Iamaleava-Heupel-Aguilar
Nico Iamaleava (Brianna Paciorka-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images) | Josh Heupel (Alan Poizner-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images) | Joey Aguilar (James Guillory-Imagn Images)

Josh Heupel is done talking about Nico Iamaleava. During a recent sit-down with FM104-5 The Zone in Nashville, the Tennessee head coach requested any discussion about the now-infamous breakup with Iamaleava be forever referred to as “the Joey Aguilar situation.”

Heupel is clearly ready to move on from the past and embrace the future with Aguilar, who effectively traded places with Iamaleava following the Volunteers’ much-publicized divorce with their former QB1 after a failed NIL renegotiation attempt. That resulted in Iamaleava entering the NCAA Transfer Portal and signing with UCLA, prompting Aguilar, who joined the Bruins in the Winter from Appalachian State, to re-enter the portal himself before ultimately landing in Knoxville.

During a recent stop on the Big Orange Caravan tour in Nashville, when local radio host Brent Dougherty began a line of questioning about the notorious breakup by describing it as “the Nico Iamaleava situation,” Heupel quickly re-established a new way of discussing what went down last month. It’s Joey Aguilar’s time.

“Well, let’s start calling it the Joey Aguilar situation,” Heupel responded. “At the end of the day, that’s just the landscape. You’re not going to keep everybody. You have opportunities to put your roster together. I feel like we’ve got a team that’s accountable and connected, works hard, competes hard, and we’re built to win. Now we’ve got to go earn it every single day.

“And we have some new pieces that we have to get on-boarded here in the course of May, that’s the nature of college football. So we’ll get ready and keep competing and keep growing.”

Surprising update emerges on Joey Aguilar, anticipated arrival at Tennessee after transfer

After committing to Tennessee out of the transfer portal, Joey Aguilar has not yet joined the Volunteers program. However, that could change later this moth, according to ESPN’s Chris Low.

Low reported Aguilar continued to take online classes at Appalachian State after he arrived at UCLA. That means he could join the Tennessee program in mid-to-late May. UCLA’s classes go into June because the school is on the quarter system, meaning Aguilar would have had to wait until the summer to arrive in Knoxville had he started taking classes at UCLA.

But since he’s still finishing his degree at Appalachian State, the door could be open to an earlier arrival in Knoxville. Aguilar’s commitment came after the departure of Nico Iamaleava, who left Tennessee amid an NIL dispute and committed to UCLA.

Aguilar transferred to UCLA in December after spending two seasons at Appalachian State. However, he opted to enter the transfer portal after the Bruins signed Iamaleava on April 20.

— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.