The 2024 season for Southern Miss was a doomsday stretched over 4 months. The team playing in the Sun Belt couldn’t salvage anything in the season and won just one game. Moreover, the losses weren’t easy to swallow as the team stood 116th at points per game among the 134 FBS teams. Will Hall was rightly fired thereafter, and Reed Stringer had to oversee the final five games. But now the team is facing more woes as one major QB prospect has just entered the transfer portal.

The 2025 class of the Golden Eagles may not look as star-studded since it’s ranked 111th nationally. Still, the class had some of the best prospects who were looking brimming with potential. One of those prospects was the QB Silas Corder. Corder, at 6 feet and 190 lbs, was a decent and valued prospect for the team, but has opted to enlist in the portal. The QB wrote on his X account.

“I’ve been blessed to achieve my dreams of setting a new standard for quarterbacks at Pascagoula High and earning an opportunity to compete at the FBS DI level at Southern Miss. I’ve now decided to enter the transfer portal with 4 years of eligibility. Thank you to coaches Will Hall, Reed Stringer, Jack Walker, and Blake Anderson for believing in me. You guys are what made USM the place I wanted to be“.

The QB, while initially signed for a Sun Belt team, still offers a wide range of skill sets. The QB won the Southern Miss student athlete of the week at his team. Moreover, he has also been a two-time all-state and all-region MVP when playing for Pascagoula High School, Mississippi. Apart from these achievements, the QB has also been an MS South All-Star -QB and has notched up 2,120 passing yards in his High School. The potential the QB has provides an additional incentive for Tennessee to rope the QB.

While the QB would not be a starter, and also can’t perform at the level of Nico Iamaleava right now. Still, he offers some good depth talent at the QB position. This is because, after Iamaleava’s abrupt exit to the transfer portal, the Vols can’t sign an SEC QB. And right now, Jake Merklinger seems to be QB1. Apart from Merklinger, there’s only one QB in the Tennessee depth room, and that is George MacIntyre. So, in that sense, a potential addition in the depth room becomes necessary for Josh Heupel.

Nico Iamaleava’s dad drops QB’s potential destination

Nico Iamaleava’s abrupt decision to enter the transfer portal shook the whole CFB world, so much so that there were all kinds of accusations on the young QB. There were reports that the contract talks between Nico’s camp and Tennessee broke down, and the QB didn’t attend the spring practices after that. Many analysts and broadcasters pointed to it be ‘foolishness’ on the part of Nico to move away from an offer close to $2.2 million on the table.

However, according to a recent revelation, the QB may have higher valued ‘offers’ than the analysts might have predicted. Nico’s dad, Nick Iamaleava, through the Blue Blood Bias X account, posted about it on X. “The offers we have received are better than what Nico was getting, by a lot!… Nico has offers over $4,000,000,“. Moreover, Nic also hinted at the team being Tulane.

This revelation certainly opens various dimensions, where one side is Nico’s camp, and the other side is NIL-bashing journalists and analysts. But to be honest, if Nico hadn’t had offers in his pocket, it wouldn’t have made sense to move away from the Tennessee contract negotiations. So it looks like there may be some truth to Nico’s dad’s claims. However, to verify all of this, we just have to wait a bit more.