Of course Lane Kiffin found a way to react to Tennessee, Nico Iamaleava drama

The talk of college football isn't about spring games. Rather, it's on quarterback Nico Iamaleava's exit from the Tennessee Volunteers football program. Despite starting last season and leading the team to the College Football Playoff, Iamleava had a dispute over his name, image, and likeness contract with Tennessee, resulting in him holding out of spring practices and meetings on Friday.

On Saturday, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel told the team that they were moving on from Iamaleava. A report from ESPN's Pete Thamel and Chris Low revealed that Iamaleava contacted offensive coordinator Joey Halzle to inform him he was entering the transfer portal on Apr. 16. Iamaleava, meanwhile, ghosted Heuchel and other members of the staff, per the ESPN report.

With Iamaleave exiting Tennessee, fans were reminded of when Lane Kiffin, who was head coach in 2009, left the program to head to USC. There is an infamous photo of Kiffin leaning alongside a wall during his coaching tenure. One Tennessee fan decided to poke some fun at the situation by photoshopping Iamaleava's head on Kiffin's body.

Well, the current Ole Miss head coach saw the new photo and responded in kind — with a facepalm emoji.

Lane Kiffin responds to Nico Iamleava, Tennessee drama

So, in this case, is Iamaleava going to follow the Kiffin route and head to Southern California to play for the Trojans? At this rate, who knows? All that is known is that if Iamaleava wants to play during the 2025 season, he will have to play for a school outside of the SEC.

The aforementioned ESPN report mentioned that Iamaleava's camp reached out to Oregon before Tennessee's spring practices. However, Oregon shut down the talk, saying they weren't interested.

One Tennessee fan brought up the similarities between Iamaleava's and Kiffin's exits from Knoxville. During an interview with WBIR's Emilie Rae Cochrane, the fan said that Iamaleava "Lane Kiffin'd us."

"He left in the middle of the night for a sweeter deal," said the fan.

Heupel and Tennessee sent a simple, yet emphatic message after Iamaleava's holdout resulted in his eventual exit. "No one is ever bigger than the program." That includes, Iamaleava, and himself. With that, the Volunteers will seemingly move forward with a quarterback room including Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre.

While Iamaleava will now search for a better NIL deal from another school, Tennessee fans will remember how his tenure ended. With that, he is now in the company of Kiffin.