With rising star quarterback Nico Iamaleava departing the program for UCLA due to an outlandish squabble about NIL money, the Tennessee Volunteers entered the quarterback market.
The team allegedly poked around with stars like Avery Johnson, Rocco Becht, Sam Leavitt, and more, but one quarterback that was picking up steam in the eyes of Josh Heupel was TCU’s Josh Hoover.
According to a report from 247Sports’ Brad Crawford, the Horned Frogs hit Hoover with a sizable offer to enter the transfer portal, which the blank native turned down to remain in Ft. Worth.
“TCU starting quarterback Josh Hoover turned down a lucrative offer from Tennessee — reportedly more than $1 million in excess of his NIL deal — to enter the transfer portal and depart for the Vols,” Crawford wrote. “Reporter Steve Johnson cited sources that Tennessee reached out to Hoover’s representatives after Nico Iamaleava and the Vols split ways last week, ultimately ending with the projected starter entering the portal.”
In 2025, Hoover broke the single-season passing yards record at TCU with 3,949. He also added 27 touchdowns to 11 interceptions with a quarterback rating of 73.9.
“This stuff was happening last December during the playoffs — with this kid included, but not just this kid,” CBS Sports’ Josh Pate said on Nico Iamaleava. “They were trying to get more money from Tennessee and other playoff teams before the playoffs. They were trying to leverage playoff participation.”
While Tennessee was initially applauded for not coughing up the excess funds to retain Iamaleava, the pushback has started to flow back in their direction after failing to lure multiple Big 12 quarterbacks into the transfer portal.
