Urban Meyer praises Josh Heupel but says "Tennessee is screwed"

It was Urban Meyer’s arrival at Florida, coupled with Nick Saban’s at Alabama, that helped Tennessee leaders decide to push out Phillip Fulmer 17 years ago and ignite a meandering journey for Vols football.

And Meyer won a couple national championships at Florida, so he has an understanding of the SEC, the Gators’ rivals and now a situation that he says, succinctly, has left “Tennessee screwed.” 

Meyer, the former title-winning coach at both Florida and Ohio State who was a disaster as an NFL head coach, shared his thoughts Wednesday on Tennessee’s separation with quarterback Nico Iamaleava on the Triple Option podcast that Meyer cohosts with former Alabama and NFL star Mark Ingram II, as well as Rob Stone.

“That’s great, that’s his prerogative; he’s the head coach,” Meyer said of UT’s fourth-year leader, Josh Heupel. “But I’ve coached against Tennessee, now I can imagine Week 4, Week 5, if they’re struggling. Right now, they have one quarterback, a redshirt-freshman, who threw nine balls last year. That’s it, because the backup was a senior.

“They are at nada, zero right now. Two young quarterbacks, a freshman and redshirt-freshman, and obviously the Transfer Portal opens up today for a 10-day window. They’re going to go start swinging, but you make your stand and that’s fine, that’s great. Very talented player; did not have a great year. That’s the thing you’ve got to push back on a little bit. When I saw he only had one 300-yard game, eight games under 200 and a Playoff 104 passing yards. We watched him a lot, enjoyed him. I think he’s really, super-talented but he did not have a great year. Had a good year.”

Added Ingram, who won a Heisman Trophy at Alabama, “He had a great year the first five games against people who are unranked.”

Meyer praised Iamaleava’s talent but also not the reality of the production-versus-competition component for the California signal-caller entering his third year of college.  

“The reality is, Tennessee is screwed. I mean they are … they got a problem,” he said. “You lose a potential high (NFL) Draft pick, you have the backup-quarterback who left last year and now you have a redshirt-freshman who threw nine passes as a freshman.

“You have zero experience and the Portal opens as we speak, they are going to have to go get one. Here’s the key thing, key elements here: Everybody’s saying, ‘Nice job, Tennessee, making a stand.’  I got a little comment on that: Tennessee plays Florida usually every year in October [actually, they’ve played in September eight of the past nine non-COVID seasons]. Can you imagine if that game is going the other way and Josh Heupel, Coach Heupel grabs a microphone and stands on the 50-yard line in Neyland Stadium and says, ‘It’s OK, I made a stand way back when.’

“So, I don’t know what the answer is. There are some interesting answers out there, but it happened. And think about this: He threw for 200 yards in eight games, or less. Two-hundred yards. He had one 300-yard game and he threw for 104 yards against Ohio State in the Playoffs. Had a good year, first-year starting quarterback, but as a guy that’s been involved almost 40 years in this game, I can’t believe this happened.”

The show noted that seven of the consensus top-eight quarterbacks in the 2023 signing class all had transferred at least once; only Arch Manning at Texas has remained steadfast in his destination.

Meyer also said his sources told him that people in the business “don’t think he’s a $4 million quarterback. They’re going to wait to see if it comes down, and if it comes down, people might then take a swing at him.”

Reports emerged late Wednesday afternoon that Iamaleava was headed to UCLA, a spot that sources told FootballScoop last weekend was a prominent finalist for the quarterback – especially when Texas Tech indicated that its program had no interest, Tulane backed off and North Carolina moved in a different direction, numerous sources told FootballScoop.

While Iamaleava’s talent is obvious, he’s now going to face considerable scrutiny about his commitment to the game, his teammates and his leadership abilities.

Sources on Rocky Top Wednesday with direct knowledge told FootballScoop that Iamaleava’s missed practice last Friday was merely the latest – and the final – instance that Iamaleava no-showing the Vols would be tolerated. They said Iamaleava had even missed practices without explanation during Tennessee’s 2024 season, in which the Vols made their first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff.

They also indicated that Iamaleava left “several hundred thousand dollars on the table” from his Tennessee contract due to not “showing up or fulfilling his appearance agreements and autograph sessions.”

“Great stadium, SEC football and I’m going to walk away?,” Meyer asked. “And there’s a rule that he can’t play in the SEC [when leaving in the spring Portal Window].”

Instead, Iamaleava appears headed back home to California and a UCLA program that finished 5-7 in the first year of first-time head coach DeShaun Foster, who in December hired promising young coach but first-time play-caller Tino Sunseri to run the Bruins’ offense.