Tennessee quarterback Nico Imaleava wanted more NIL money. He wasn’t going to get it from the Volunteers’ NIL fund.

And so, while he was in the process of quitting on the Volunteers program, he was fired.

Coach Josh Heupel talked tough on Saturday, when talking to reporters about the decision to move on from Imaleava.

“I want to thank him for everything he’s done since he’s gotten here, as a recruit and who he was as a player and how he competed inside the building,” Heupel said, via ESPN.com. “Obviously, we’re moving forward as a program without him. I said it to the guys today. There’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T. That includes me.”

It sounds good, but let’s face it. If the powers-that-be on Rocky Top thought Imaleava was worth the NIL bump he wanted, they would have found a way to give it to him.

“This program has been around for a long time,” Heupel added. “There are a lot of great coaches, a lot of great players who came before that laid the cornerstone pieces, the legacy, the tradition that is Tennessee football. It’s going to be around a long time after I’m gone and after they’re gone.”

Imaleava had tried to get an increase to the $4 million range when the prior transfer portal ended. The program wouldn’t do it.

“We weren’t going to flinch this time either,” an unnamed source told Pete Thamel of ESPN.com.

Again, they would have flinched if they thought Imaleava was worth it. It becomes easier to stand on principle when the player is seeking more than the program believes he’s worth.

Imaleava now gets a chance to get the NIL payment he wants with another program. If he fails, it’ll vindicate Tennessee’s decision to stand firm.