Urban Meyer is the latest college football personality to weigh in on the breakup between Tennessee and quarterback Nico Iamaleava over the weekend.

The former Florida and Ohio State head coach takes about Iamaleava’s highly publicized departure, reportedly over NIL, on a podcast this week.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

“Here’s the reality: Tennessee is screwed,” Meyer said on The Triple Option podcast on Wednesday. “They got a problem. You lose a potential high draft pick. You have the backup quarterback left last year and now you have a redshirt freshman that 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.”

Iamaleava, who was five-star recruit and one of the top quarterback prospects in the 2023 class before signing with Tennessee.

He started every game during the Vols’ run to the College Football Playoff last season, passing for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions.

Ten of Iamaleava’s touchdown passes were against non-SEC teams.

With Iamaleava officially in the transfer portal on the first day of the spring portal window on Wednesday, the Vols are left with just two scholarship quarterbacks in redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and freshman George MacIntyre.

Merklinger appeared in two games last season, while MacIntyre, a four-star prospect in Tennessee’s most recent signing class, joined the team as an early enrollee last December.

Walk-on quarterback Gaston Moore, who served as Iamaleava’s backup in 2024, entered the transfer portal in the December window.

“There’s a couple of key elements here,” Meyer added “Everybody’s saying, ‘Nice job Tennessee, making a stand.’ I’ve got a little comment on that. Tennessee plays Florida (on Nov. 22). Can you imagine that game’s going the other way and coach Heupel grabs the microphone and stands on the 50-yard line in Neyland Stadium and says, ‘It’s OK, I made a stand way back when.'”

Josh Heupel said after the Vols’ Orange and White Game last Saturday that the coaching staff would pursue a quarterback from the transfer portal, likely an experienced signal caller to add to the room.

“Anytime your roster has the opportunity to change, that’s in December, that’s in the spring, right,” Heupel said. “As we go through the process, you’re always evaluating what you have on your roster where you’re, I’m gonna say vulnerable, where numbers might not be right, injuries, whatever. And you’re trying to get your roster where it needs to be to give yourself the best chance when you get to kick off in the fall.

“And certainly with only two scholarship players at the quarterback position, we’re going to have to find another guy.”

Tennessee begins fall camp in August and opens its season against Syracuse at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Aug. 30.

– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.

– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.

– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @ByNoahTaylor, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media.