Miles Kitselman surveyed the practice field on Friday, looking for gossiping teammates.

He saw nothing. Tennessee football did not pitter-patter when it learned that starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava was a no-show following NIL disputes.

Instead, it was business as usual.

“Didn’t skip a beat,” Kitselman said about Friday’s practice. “Ready to roll.”

When the Vols woke up Saturday morning and reported to team meetings, they were met with a message from head coach Josh Heupel. He informed his squad they would be moving forward without Iamaleava.

“At the end of the day, he’s moving on,” Heupel said. “We’re moving on too, and we’ll be ready to roll when we get to next fall.”

Still, there was no change in the way that Tennessee attacked the day. Following morning activities, the Vols made their way to Neyland Stadium for the Orange & White game.

They played behind the two remaining quarterbacks on the roster, Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre, not the one who is no longer with the team.

“This is just a true test and testimony of who we are as people and as a team,” linebacker Arion Carter said. “I just feel as long as we rally around these young guys and get them better day in and day out and just continue to rise, I feel like we’ll be just fine because we got the guys. We’re all we got, we all we need.”

Tennessee’s two quarterbacks combined to throw for four touchdown passes and 204 yards across a total of eight drives during the shortened scrimmage.

MacIntyre impressed with a trio of passes then ended up in the checkerboards, while Merklinger added one for himself.

“We’re good with whoever we got back there at quarterback,” Kitselman said. “We got some dogs here. These two guys. We got guys that want to be here, we got guys that want to give their all and they’re going to go the extra mile to do whatever they can to give us the best opportunity to win.”

Neither quarterback has the level of collegiate experience that Iamaleava had, but both are absorbing the chance to learn with the circumstances they face. Both of their roles quickly changed in the course of a day, but the focus has always been on preparing every day as if they were a starter.

For Merklinger, he has been vaulted into a starting role for the time being. The Georgia native only has two career appearances to his name with a total of seven pass attempts.

“I don’t think it changed either way we thought,” Merklinger said. “We were going to practice on Friday to practice on Friday. We went to practice and we practiced.”

As for his backup, Merklinger recognizes the work MacIntyre has done to prepare himself for this prominent role early in his career.

“He’s like a sponge,” Merklinger said. “Anything he can learn, he can learn. He’s always up in the quarterback room watching film, so yeah, he’s doing a really good job.”

Saturday was the first time the freshman quarterback had the opportunity to play in front of a college crowd, even at limited capacity. At the same time, it was his first opportunity to experience some of the game day traditions.

“As the in-state kid, there’s all this talk about all this quarterback stuff, and for me, it was a dream come true to run out of the T today, and that was a cool feeling,” MacIntyre said.

While the college football world was focused on what was happening in Knoxville, the team was unbothered by what the national media was concerned about. The players were looking forward to closing out the spring with one last scrimmage.

That is what they got. Team Orange and Team White concluded the game with a 14-all tie, leaving without a winner — but instead, left with a tighter-knit bond built through the turmoil experienced over the previous 48 hours.

“I’ve been a part of some really talented teams that haven’t won a whole lot because they were individuals on those teams,” Kitselman, a former Alabama and Hutchinson Community College transfer, said.

“Quite frankly, there’s no other group that I’d rather go to war with right now than the guys that we got on this team and just implementing that — and knowing that I got their back and I don’t even have to question if they have mine — and just day in and day out, show them that i’m going to give my everything for this program.”

Losing a leader at the conclusion of spring practice is not easy for a team to adapt to, but the Vols are not worried about that. Instead, it is just another motivating factor as Tennessee looks to progress through the offseason.

Kitselman has seen a lot of football during his time in college. He is entering his sixth season on the field with his third different school. For him, these are the situations that he plays for.

“This just makes me even more excited,” Kitselman said. “Knowing what’s going to come as far as how we need to rally together now even more than ever, and that’s what college, that’s what sports are all about. It’s about teams coming together.”

Tennessee football kicks off its 2025 season in Atlanta with the Aflac Kickoff Game against the Syracuse Orange on Aug. 30.

With the spring portal opening on Wednesday, April 16, the Vols will find out who really wants to suit up in orange and white.

“The guys who want to be here are the guys who want to be here,” Carter said. “… A bond is unbreakable between brother to brother.”