Josh Heupel's decision from before he ever coached a game at UT prevented Nico Iamaleava from being in an Arch Manning-like situation

Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel made a decision in 2021, before he had even coached a game at UT, that drastically altered the program's quarterback situation in 2024.

The Vols are obviously in great shape at quarterback entering the 2024 season with former five-star recruit Nico Iamaleava set to start. Iamaleava has Heisman Trophy-caliber talent and could easily be among the nation's top passers this fall.

But if not for the decision that Heupel made in 2021, Iamaleava might be in an Arch Manning-type situation entering his redshirt freshman season (Manning, who was also a five-star recruit, will be the backup to Quinn Ewers as a redshirt freshman at Texas in 2024).

One of Heupel's biggest moves early during his tenure at Tennessee was the decision to dismiss quarterback Kaidon Salter from the roster in June, 2021.

Salter, a former four-star recruit who signed with Tennessee during the 2021 recruiting cycle (he signed just weeks before Jeremy Pruitt was fired), was dismissed from Tennessee's football team after two separate legal incidents.

In March of 2021, Salter was suspended from the team after an incident involving drugs and unlawful drug paraphernalia. He was reinstated to the team a couple of months later, but he was dismissed from the team after getting cited for simple possession of marijuana during a traffic stop just weeks after his reinstatement.

Dismissing Salter from the team was a decision that Heupel had to make -- there was no other choice. Heupel was in the early stages of rebuilding the culture at Tennessee after the Pruitt era. And keeping Salter on the roster would've sent the wrong message to the team.

Salter, however, has thrived since leaving Tennessee. The Texas native transferred to Liberty after getting dismissed by Heupel. And not only has he stayed out of trouble at Liberty, but he's developed into one of the top quarterbacks in the nation.

Last season, Salter passed for 2,876 yards and 32 touchdowns (with just six interceptions). He also rushed for 1,089 yards and 12 touchdowns. As a result, Salter is on several preseason college football award watch lists.

I don't think there's any doubt that Salter would've thrived in Heupel's quarterback-friendly offense. In fact, he might have put up even better numbers under Heupel than he has at Liberty. But again, Heupel made the right call by dismissing Salter in 2021 -- it's the move that had to be made.

If Salter, however, had stayed out of trouble and stuck on Tennessee's roster, he'd likely be in position to start this fall, which would've pushed Iamaleava to the primary backup role (and he probably would've been subjected to the same transfer speculation this offseason that we saw with Manning at Texas).

It's always interesting to look back at certain decisions to see how they impacted future situations. It would be fun to see Salter playing in Heupel's offense, but it would rob everyone of getting to see Iamaleava take the field this fall.

And based on the way Heupel has talked about Iamaleava all offseason, I'm guessing he's just fine with the way Tennessee's quarterback situation has played out post-Salter's dismissal.

Related: Bob Stoops should root for Josh Heupel over Oklahoma in 2024 and it shouldn't even be a hard decision