The Josh Innes Show - Dumb Nico Story

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

I found a Nico story in USA Today that I find really smarmy and annoying. Why is it that almost every story is smarmy and annoying? Why do I read USA Today? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spring is here and you can now get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. See app for details. You know, it's funny. I feel like I've replaced the for you tab on Twitter with USA Today, because USA Today is just one of the sites I look at when I'm trying to find things to talk about and I feel like there are enough crappy clickbaity headlines on USA Today that supply me with enough content to do 10 podcasts every day but like it just puts me in

a shitty mood much like the for you tab on Twitter would put me in a shitty mood same can be said about the college football section or just any section for that matter of usa today but one that i have not read the story for i like to read these stories with you as we go along like i don't want to read the story initially i like to read the headline and then tell you guys the headline and see if the story in any way matches the headline. Because a lot of times you'll read a headline that's fucking ridiculous and then the story really isn't that. Other times you'll see the headline and you'll go, oh shit, that tracks.

The person that wrote the headline who is different than the person who wrote the story are both simpatico in that they're both dipshits or they're both brilliant. Very rarely do I say something I read in USA Today or any print outlet is brilliant anyway because brilliance is dead. But I shouldn't say that. There are some things that are brilliant. But I'm just in a shitty mood all the time, so everything seems shitty to me. But this headline, going back to the Nico story from yesterday, and of course the Nico

story changed after I did the pod yesterday because the Nico story now has him going to UCLA, allegedly going to UCLA to make less money than he was going to make when he was at Tennessee, obviously. But the headline reads, Tennessee turning to college football transfer portal to replace Nico, the irony. I love when people talk about irony because really they're usually 100% wrong about what is irony. People love to talk about things being ironic and oh, the irony. First of all, the headline is such a condescending, pompous headline anyway. Tennessee turning to college football transfer portal to replace Nico. The irony. I guess we're going to have to find out if it really is irony. I've not read the story.

But I will throw this out before we get into breaking this story down. Just because Tennessee goes to the transfer portal to get a quarterback does not mean, because if you're saying irony you're trying to intimate basically that Tennessee is somehow being hypocritical in this thing there's nothing awful about the transfer portal in the minds of Tennessee and now unless I didn't read something somewhere I do not believe that Tennessee at any point has said the transfer portal is terrible and then oh by the way they're going to get someone out of the transfer portal this is a unique situation where someone who they do not believe to be worth the money he was asking for left and they said screw off right so the the i

have a gut feeling here having not read this story i have a gut feeling that this headline is going to look really stupid well first of all the headline is pompous this headline is going to look really stupid. Well, first of all, the headline is pompous. The headline is snarky and smarmy. And it talks about irony. And usually people are always wrong about what irony is. It'll probably be Alanis Morissette irony. But let's see. We're going to read this story.

And we're going to see if it really is worthy of the snarky headline. Because I don't think they have anything. I don't think they have anything that would fit irony as it relates to the Tennessee situation, because I don't recall. And I haven't read every story about it, but I do not recall Josh Heupel or Tennessee saying the transfer portal is bad. I don't recall that. But what I do recall is that a player who really isn't all that good, asking for like double what he was already agreed to make, and they said, no, we don't need you. If they would have said, nope, we're never going to the transfer portal either,

then it's irony, then you can do your little smarmy story. So this story is by Blake Topmeyer. Let's play some commercials commercials and when we return, let's see what Blake Topmeyer thinks irony is as it relates to Tennessee football. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings pick six posterizes the competition, including price picks. It's a very simple concept. Hit all your picks and score higher minimum payouts on pick six, plus even more cash if you outscore the competition. Pick

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Limited time offer. See terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. All righty, Blake Topmeyer. Talk to me, buddy. The irony hung thick in the air like the springtime pollen in East Tennessee. Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said, quote, No one is bigger than the program, explaining why the Vols are moving on from money-hungry starting quarterback Nico Emea.

In the next breath, Heupel explained that the Vols would pursue a transfer quarterback to fill the void created by his departure. Tennessee would benefit from another starting quarterback leaving his team after spring practice, entering the transfer portal and pursuing greener pastures in other words Tennessee seeks a Nico to replace Nico that is not true that is not true first of all didn't they uh I think they recruited Nico Nico was one of their own guys and they agreed to an NIL deal when he was like 17 years old. Whatever. Like, my God, I can't handle people being so dumb. And the worst dumb people are the ones that are sanctimonious and smarmy and snarky and their stupidity. Going to have to find another quarterback, Heupel said, after Tennessee's spring game.

Here comes another round of the transfer sweepstakes as coaches line up to make an acquisition they hope will help their roster. The transfer portal opened Wednesday, igniting college football's second free agency period in a span of four months. Coaches find the lack of roster control that accompanies multiple transfer windows to be a maddening situation, but their actions contribute to the situation. It's simple supply and demand. If coaches showed no demand for transfers in the April free agency period, the supply would dry up.

Nico isn't the only player leaving a team in the lurch this spring. To wit, California's All-America running back Jaden Odd hit the portal and Oklahoma quickly poached him. Nico stood to make more than $2 million this season from Tennessee's NIL collective, but he sought to sweeten the deal. He reportedly wanted $4 million. Tennessee wouldn't cave to that figure, and Niko skipped practice Friday, skipped Tennessee's spring game, and entered the transfer portal. How to curtail these types of situations in the future? Well, if no coach offers Niko a lifeline and he withers in the portal, this would signal that coaches

refuse to play the game of starting quarterbacks leaving their teams after spring practice. And what if Heupel had announced Saturday that Jake Merklinger, Nico's trusty backup, would be Tennessee's starter instead of announcing that he's going to be transfer shopping? If those actions happened, it might make the next quarterback think twice before pulling this maneuver. But, again, you're arguing the wrong point. Like, yes, coaches are annoyed by the transfer portal, but they're annoyed by aspects of the transfer portal that you are ignoring. I don't think most of these coaches are out there bitching about the idea of the transfer portal because many of these guys have landed key pieces of their team in the transfer portal.

That's how this works. They don't like the lack of regulation in the transfer portal. They don't like that guys are poaching their dudes in the middle of the season, reaching out to them. You've heard coaches talk about this. There are schools. By the way, schools are not supposed to be the ones that are operating in this world of giving these NIL deals.

It's collectives and all that shit. But they're not bitching about the idea of the transfer portal. The ones that truly hate this era of college athletics have just gotten the fuck out of it. A lot of those are basketball coaches like, you know, Coach K or Nick Saban. You know, guys like that have gotten out of it because they don't want to live in this world. And that's fine.

I don't recall Josh Heupel. Now, if he said something that I haven't read, I haven't read every quote from Josh Heupel ever. But if Josh Heupel has said something about how terrible the transfer portal is and how it's ruining college athletics, then your little snarky story holds some water, has a little weight to it. If he hasn't, then your story's bullshit and it's a waste of time. These guys know the importance of the transfer portal and many of them know how to play the game. But what they don't want to deal with is when they agree to a deal with someone

and then that someone wants to double up that deal and they don't view that person as worth it. See, people want to sit here and act like, well, the players have all this leverage and if the player wants more money, they should give it to him. Well, on the flip side, if a school doesn't believe he's worth the fucking money they're paying him, why would they pay him more?

They're allowed to feel that way. But that's the bullshit about like a story like this. Well, the irony, there is no irony. They're looking for someone who fits their budget, who can help them win. They don't believe that Nico is worth $4 million. This isn't fucking hard. Like it is not difficult. They don't view him as worth $4 million. So they said, fuck off, go away. If you want to leave and go to the portal, go to the portal. We'll find somebody else. They'll acknowledge that they need a quarterback. They'll acknowledge that the guys they have on their roster, they don't feel they're good enough. So they're going to go to the portal and try to find somebody. Most of the coaches coaching today have some issue with the portal, but it's not the idea that the portal

exists. It might be when the portal opens, like the college basketball people have talked about that, about how the portal opens, like you can go to the transfer portal while the NCAA tournament's still going on or how there's two portal windows in football or whatever. But most of these coaches understand the game and they know that they are going to have to go out and find transfer players. Look at what Brian Kelly did. Brian Kelly put up a million dollars of his own money, said match it. The LSU fans did and everybody else did. And now they put money in their collective and they've gone to the portal.

And LSU has done pretty well. They had a pretty good portal run the last time around. And now they put money in their collective and they've gone to the portal and LSU has done pretty well. They had a pretty good portal run the last time around. So like, like, I just think people live in this dumb world where it's like, oh, look at the irony. Look at the irony. You let a guy go and now you need one in the portal. The only way that's an irony is if the guy at some point said, we're not going to get anyone out of the portal.

If he said that, then you can go, oh, he's a hypocrite. Oh, he's full of shit. Oh, the irony. But he didn't. Let's see. Nico's too talented to go without a home. Although I'm skeptical he'll secure a $4 million offer. The market doesn't seem particularly hot for him,

but I can't imagine he won't generate interest if he lowers his price. He's the top-rated transfer in the 24-7 sports rankings. If Nico finds a destination and displaces the starter in his new program, that quarterback could then enter the portal. Well, thank you for explaining how the portal works, friend. Demand for transfer spurs more supply. Tennessee won't rush to anoint Merklinger, a loyal backup who signed as a four-star recruit. He's one of the two scholarship quarterbacks left on Tennessee's roster. The Vols made the college football playoff with Nico starting last season. They retained playoff potential in 2025 if Nico had not transferred.

With Merklinger starting, that playoff potential goes poof, so Heupel will try to seize a transfer quarterback who improves Tennessee's outlook. Round and round we go. To be clear, Nico misplayed this situation. He would have generated more demand and done less reputational damage if he had transferred in December after Tennessee's first-round playoff loss. He also would have given himself more time to learn the offense and assimilate with the roster at his destination school. Schools that otherwise might have been interested in Nico already identified their starters by the time he decided to transfer. Also, an SEC rule requires players who transfer within the conference in the spring window to sit out a season before playing.

That further hamstrings him, although I don't know how many SEC schools were interested. I just, I don't get it. It's just one of these things, man. I'm like, oh, the irony. Oh, the irony. Like, you don't want to pay the guy. Coach doesn't want to pay the guy. He goes.

Like, how difficult is that? Like, this is the way of the world. This is the way of college sports. This is the way of athletics. Dudes are going to get paid, man. And as you know, I don't give a shit that they get paid. I just think that we're creating a really bad universe and a really bad precedent for what I think we're just building shitty people.

That's what I think. I think we're building people who have no concept of how the real world works. I just and by the way, I think that in a lot of instances, like I think kids that are growing up in the social media world today have no fucking clue how the real world works. They have no clue. They have no idea what they're in for. They have no idea how difficult life is because they think they can just run to social media and get a bunch of people that agree with them and they can yell about it and that'll fix things. You live in some fantasy land

where the air don't move, as Pauly would say. These people just live in this fake universe. And what's going to happen is these dudes in this college world, and it's a very small number of the people that exist in society, but these dudes in this college world and it's a very small number of the people that exist in society but these dudes in this college football and college basketball world that go to four schools in four years and chase money and get blow jobs from all these schools tell them how great they are from the time they're 12 years old at the time they're 24 until you're washed up and nobody needs you anymore then you're 24 25 years old you have no fucking clue about anything in life because you've never had to deal with real adversity. You've had to deal with college football player adversity, which is, oh, the coach yelled at me. I'm transferring. That's the adversity you deal with. A lot of

these guys are going to have zero concept of how the real world works. It ain't my problem. I don't know these guys, but that's my biggest issue with NIL is I just believe that we're going to throw people out into the world that have no clue what's going on. Most of these guys ain't playing in the NFL or the NBA when it's all said and done. So that, and I'm all for you getting paid while you're at it, but these guys ain't learning shit. And a lot of these guys are just going to become fucking losers when it's all said and done because, and like it used to be part of the world was your coach taught you about life. What coaches are teaching these dudes about life at this point? When you're out there just trying to find the money you can from all these boosters and NIL people to pay for whatever rando you can get for a season and then he'll bounce to the next place.

That's the world we've created. And partially that's because the internet likes to run wild and say, oh, it's racist or bigoted that the coaches can do whatever they want and get paid. But the players can't. It's racist and it's unfair. Okay. You get what you want. You get what you, and by the way, players deserve to get paid. You get what you want and what these guys think they deserve.

Now try to make them upstanding citizens. Try to make them decent humans. You think people at Georgia are learning how to be decent humans? There's some traffic accident or speeding ticket or some other arrest at Georgia every five fucking minutes. Doesn't matter because, hey, if we can play football, we play football. And I'm not naive. I get that that's the way the world works, but like, I just don't like the, like we're creating a weird world, a weird world of people. Social media is messed up. There's just a lot of shit that's just messed up in the world. Like I'm watching this documentary. We finished the one

about the kid fluencers, which was just a story about this group of kids. One of their, the one girl was the star and they built a squad around them, like Logan and Jake Paul type shit, a squad around them. And like, they were basically doing borderline kiddie porn. Like they weren't sexing or anything like that, but it was, it was the kind of shit that they knew. Like, who do you think's watching these YouTube channels that have 2 million subscribers that are kid channels? I think that's all 2 million kids watching. No, it's weird creeper dudes. Right. And like the mom that was the ringleader of this shit is just whoring her kid out there on the internet,

making, you know, 600, 700 grand a month. They kick her off of YouTube, spoiler alert, because they're like, you're breaking the standards of YouTube, whatever. She goes to some like off-brand OnlyFans, start posting her young daughter's pictures, not nude or anything, but like suggestive photos. And people are paying for these photos. Who do you think's paying for those photos?

Some eight-year-old girl? No, it's some perv that's whacking it to that shit. But like, that's the world we've created. We've made a world where people are like, that's what people are doing. So we're just a weird world, man. Just a weird society. But anyway, more to come.