Tennessee Still in Win Now Mode Despite Loss of Nico Iamaleava

The Tennessee Volunteers are still in win -now mode according to Greg McElroy despite the loss of Nico Iamaleava.

Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel paces the sidelines during the NCAA college football playoff game against Ohio State on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Tennessee Volunteers are still in win-now mode according to Greg McElroy despite the loss of Nico Iamaleava.

Heading into the offseason, it looked like Tennessee was setting up to make another run at the college football playoff. Expectations have been put to a halt though as starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava entered the transfer portal and is now headed to UCLA.

It created a major change up for the Volunteers as they will now search for a new starting quarterback. The Volunteers have options on the roster such as Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre. The program could also take an option out of the portal if they find one that fits.

Despite the loss of Iamaleava, college football analyst Greg McElroy still thinks the Volunteers are in win-now mode still.

"I think Tennessee is in win-now mode," McElroy said during the most recent edition ofAlways College Football. "I think they can win right now. Do I think they could regress a little bit this year? Perhaps, but that's mostly because of what they lost on defense and the quality that they lost at running back. Everything else has a chance to be pretty dang good. And I look at Tennessee, and how the schedule sets up, and they might very much be in the mix for some opportunities to knock some teams off that maybe you don't anticipate them knocking off going into this upcoming season. But it is entirely dependent on getting quality play at the quarterback spot. Josh Heupel's offense demands it. And [the quarterback at Tennessee] doesn't have to be able to throw it a country mile. We've seen that happen a million times."

Tennessee has some tough matchups this season as they play the Georgia Bulldogs early in the season at home and a road trip to Alabama. That goes for just about every single SEC team. So despite losing their starting quarterback, perhaps Tennessee can make another appearance in this year's playoffs at the hands of head coach Josh Heupel.

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