This is a blessing in disguise

#1
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VolTom1

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#1
I said many times last year Nico needed to be benched, he was not very good, he almost cost us the Florida and Oklahoma games, he took himself out of the Alabama game over apparently nothing, and he did us no favors in many other games, and we were paying him more than other impactful players. I got blasted for my takes last year on Nico, and TBF I should get blasted for some of the things I said about Joe Milton two years ago... but I still always respected Joe as a person, but Nico has lost all respect, as he deserves.
 
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#6
#6
And once again I think we may have broken ground just as we did with the lawsuit last year. Thank you Danny White and Josh Heupel for having the cajones to tell a greedy player to pound it.

This may be the levee break that college football needs to put some of these kids back in check. Hopefully more teams start doing it.
 
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#8
#8
If he's able to ever make it to pro football, and I'm not so sure that isn't gonna happen, the stigma will follow him for whatever career he has. Sad to see a young man being destroyed by his family. He should have broken ranks with his father and honored his contract with Tennessee. I don't know that he will ever play college football again.
 
#9
#9
bigorangepoppa said:
If he's able to ever make it to pro football, and I'm not so sure that isn't gonna happen, the stigma will follow him for whatever career he has. Sad to see a young man being destroyed by his family. He should have broken ranks with his father and honored his contract with Tennessee. I don't know that he will ever play college football again.
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Someone will offer him an opportunity. Whether he takes it or not is the other part
 
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#11
#11
I wish nothing bad on the kid and I hope he finds what he's looking for monetarily and on the field somewhere else. My only thing is...his play here never justified the amount of money he received. Maybe, this will encourage schools to hold off on paying these kids that kind of money until they prove it on the field.
 
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#12
#12
Heupel would’ve stuck with the kid bc he committed to us and a plan was laid out for him to be successful here. As long as he kept his end we would’ve stuck beside him. I think he held back the offense and I’m not sure he went above and beyond to get better at anything. Couldn’t be bothered to fulfill his obligations to Spyre some times.

I believe at one point it became apparent Nico wasn’t going to grow out of this and this is just the player he is. Great raw talent but just not driven by anything but self centered need. I believe watching back in the playoffs Heupel’s body language just looked damn miserable. I almost think Nico doing this gave Heupel what he wanted; he moves on from Nico, fans and spyre understand why and what kind of clowns Heupel has had to deal with.
 
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#13
#13
rocketskates said:
And once again I think we may have broken ground just as we did with the lawsuit last year. Thank you Danny White and Josh Heupel for having the cajones to tell a greedy player to pound it.

This may be the levee break that college football needs to put some of these kids back in check. Hopefully more teams start doing it.
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Man, I’ve had so many texts from my buddies that went to other SEC schools and a few that went to some ACC schools that are praising D White and Heupel on this. Also saying they hope their coaches/admins grow some balls on this stuff. Everybody knows this whole fecal storm has to change, rules, regs and guardrails instituted.
 
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#18
#18
EZE said:
Heupel’s quick response makes me think that you might be on the right track with this.
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I don't think it was a quick response. Heupel (and White, and most likely the collective) have been chewing on this for a while. It's been more of a chess match than a "sudden death match". If UT bosses knew a) Nico making a power play as Tennessee makes the cut for the first ever 12 team playoff, and b) tipped off that he was shopping hard after that game, then I think they were had the trap set and were waiting on Pops to overplay his hand and put the hammer down.

NIL has in it's DNA that where the inmates could run the asylum under certain circumstances. On Ainge show this morning, Brian Rice pointed out where Butch caved to Jalen Hurd in naming him as MVP at the Outback bowl when it should have gone to Astro Dobbs. He also pointed out that when a coach does this, he loses credibility with the team, and it eventually led to the downfall of the brick by brick dude.

If Nico lived up to his 5 star rating and was playing like Bryce Young, Joe Burrow or even Hendon Hooker, Heupel and company might have caved, but the stats just weren't there to back it up. Granted, he didn't have a Hyatt to throw to, but regardless, he missed some wide open guys at critical times, didn't seem like he had pocket awareness and got stripped sacked more than I want to remember.

We need a quarterback the line WANTS to block for. I think we are going to be OK. Think about the Bama quarterbacks that won National Championships without being rookie of the year material. First that comes to mind is A.J. McCarron, then Greg MacElroy and Jake Coker. None of these guys was "Bryce Young or Tua" good. Saban knew that and just made sure they handed the ball off, and made simple passes. He let the running backs do the heavy lifting and just needed a quarterback that wouldn't "F" it up. We could coast a year or so. As long as the coach understands the limits of his quarterback, he can work around it to a degree. Ainge even said we were in this same boat after Peyton left. They simplified the playbook for Tee Martin and he did just fine. (On the other hand, he also said Heupel doesn't have an Al Wilson type in this team).

It's going to be interesting. If the team ends up with good chemistry this year, we should do OK. Don't see us in the playoffs, but just the fact Bama wasn't there last year and we were, well it happens..

This VFL says GBO and I'm looking forward to September. We might just have a pleasant surprise at QB, and I hope we play Nico down the road. Brian Rice says Syracuse is shopping for a QB, wouldn't that be interesting to have NICO at our first game for 2025!
 
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#19
#19
This is a blessing for Nico too. Mentioned this in another thread, but it's better for him that this happened now. If his career goes the way he hopes it does, he'll be trying to manage 10x this much money at some point. Hopefully he learns from this while continuing to develop as a player.
 
#21
#21
Whether or not Nico was underperforming his contract, there is no doubt he gave us the best opportunity to win. Even then, he was essentially benched in some games where we put the ball in Sampson's hands and didn't relent.

Also, he was a redshirt freshman who had to start SEC play on the road in multiple night games. It was a very tough environment, and there is a reason why you don't see many young players at QB in this league. It is hard to manage the expectations and level of competition. I thought he looked more composed by the end of the year too, and it is likely he would have improved upon his play in year 2 of the offense as a starter. So I wouldn't necessarily say it was a blessing in disguise.

With that said, I was very impressed with G-Mac and if he can operate the offense like he did during the O&W game, we may still be in very good position this season.
 
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#23
#23
vavolfan6 said:
Whether or not Nico was underperforming his contract, there is no doubt he gave us the best opportunity to win. Even then, he was essentially benched in some games where we put the ball in Sampson's hands and didn't relent.

Also, he was a redshirt freshman who had to start SEC play on the road in multiple night games. It was a very tough environment, and there is a reason why you don't see many young players at QB in this league. It is hard to manage the expectations and level of competition. I thought he looked more composed by the end of the year too, and it is likely he would have improved upon his play in year 2 of the offense as a starter. So I wouldn't necessarily say it was a blessing in disguise.

With that said, I was very impressed with G-Mac and if he can operate the offense like he did during the O&W game, we may still be in very good position this season.
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I think Peyton Lewis is going to be a stud. He will get us yards like Sampson did last year although they run different styles. We basically had a true freshman QB last year the way Hype had to manage him. even though it was his 3rd year with the team counting EE. I think it was sad that CJH had to tone the O down because of Nico's slow processing and not able to hit small windows since our receivers didn't get much separation. I think Nico has a career about like Ryan Leaf finish decent in college and pro bust.
 
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