Tennessee players discuss the Nico Iamaleava situation at SEC football media days.
The second day of SEC media days featured Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia and Texas on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia.
Junior linebacker Arion Carter, senior tight end Miles Kitselman and senior defensive lineman Bryson Eason represented Tennessee as student-athletes at SEC media days.
Tennessee players were asked about their offseason.
The Vols replaced their starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava after spring practices. The signal-caller did not attend Tennessee’s final spring practice or the Orange & White Game, and transferred to UCLA.
“Having a guy like that leave with such character and such poise was a hard thing to do, but nobody's bigger than the program,” Carter said at SEC media days. “We wish him the best where he is at, and I hope he has a great career and goes on to do great things.
“I feel it didn't waiver from the agenda, we had to step forward, and do, especially with the new guys we have set, with the three quarterbacks in our room with George (MacIntyre), Jake (Merklinger) and Joey (Aguilar). I feel we were able to crowd around those guys early and get those guys ready and prepare them over this course of these last few weeks. These next few weeks, going into fall and training camp for this 2025 season, I feel very well where we're standing, but we have a lot to do and a lot to prove still."
Kitselman discussed moving on from Iamaleava's transfer situation.
“We had a group text with a couple of the guys,” he said. “Whenever some stuff was going around, we all came together and said, hey, man, we want somebody who wants to be here.
"I talked about it earlier, it's the next snap, next play, don't worry about what happened before. I think that can translate over into life, can translate over to the situation, if you don't want to be here, that's fine, we're going to go find somebody who does and he's going to come in here and compete, and want to be here. We didn't skip a beat and I love it."
Eason also detailed how the Vols are coming together as a team during the offseason.
“It's just been us, just focused on everybody that is in the building,” he said. “That's really what only matters at the end of the day. Just focusing on us, and building as a team, and just taking steps every day to be better as a team and as one."
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This article originally appeared on Vols Wire: Three Vols discuss Nico Iamaleava leaving Tennessee at SEC media days
Category: General Sports
