It's been a while since Harrison Bailey was the quarterback at Tennessee, but he did overlap one year with Josh Heupel in Knoxville.

Now, the Florida reserve quarterback is rounding out his career in Gainesville. During a press conference on Saturday, he was asked about the recent saga involving Nico Iamealva and the Vols that ultimately wound up in the sides splitting direction.

Here's what he said.

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Bailey ended up giving a fairly political response that wouldn't get him in any trouble or hot water.

However, he did catch himself slipping early in his answer. Bailey said 'it doesn't surprise' before correcting himself and going into an answer any politician would be proud of.

“I didn’t even know until some of the Gator fans ran up to me, telling me,” Bailey said during a press conference on Saturday. “It doesn’t surprise — I don’t really know. It’s tricky. I don’t know the full situation so I can’t really comment too much on it. But I’ve met Nico before and I know how Coach Heupel and the group is. They’re all great people, I have nothing negative to say about them. Maybe the situation wasn’t right at the time and they parted ways."

Bailey signed with Tennessee as a five-star recruit and No. 30 player in the country. He ranked as the No. 7 prospect out of Georgia and No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the 2020 class.

As a freshman, Bailey played in six games and started the final three in a disastrous, Covid shortened year under Jeremy Pruitt. The Vols finished 3-7 and it marked the end of the Pruitt era after he was fired in the midst of controversy around illegally paying athletes.

Bailey finished his freshman year with 578 passing yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions. This came on a 71% completion mark.

As a sophomore, he backed up the duo of Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton III. He saw action in one game where he went 3-for-7 throwing for 16 yards.

Bailey is now on the fourth team of his college career.

In 2022, he transferred to UNLV. While in Las Vegas for the 2022 season, he played in four games. In this time, he completed 30-of-58 passes for 318 yards, two touchdowns, a running score and an interception.

In 2023, he made the move to Louisville. He completed 3-of-5 passes for 60 yards and a touchdown. In 2024, he remained the backup before starting in the Sun Bowl win over Washington.

On the year, he played in five games while completing 24-of-33 passes for 227 yards and three touchdowns. 164 of these yards and each touchdown was in the Sun Bowl win which saw him earn MVP of the game.

To begin the spring semester, he enrolled at Florida where he's been a key member of the team while projected starter DJ Lagway has been recovering from injury.

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