ORLANDO, Fla. — Another quarterback came to mind for Squirrel White when Tennessee freshman Nico Iamaleava made a play in a Citrus Bowl practice that was so good, the receiver on the other end — who shall remain nameless — couldn’t hold on to the football.
“He threw a no-look pass like Patrick Mahomes, and I was like, ‘What the crap?’” White told The Athletic. “It was crazy. His ability to make plays outside the pocket is amazing. He’s smooth.”
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That’s a word they use a lot when describing the 6-6 freshman from Long Beach, Calif., who will get the first start of his career in Monday’s game between the Vols (8-4) and Iowa Hawkeyes (10-3) at Camping World Stadium, after senior Joe Milton opted out, making this a much more appealing College Football Playoff appetizer. UT defensive tackle Bryson Eason used it Thursday after a practice on the UCF campus, and he had a different comparison in mind.
“A much taller Bryce Young,” Eason said, “with just how smooth he is.”
We’ve heard all about it. Let’s see it. And let’s get on with it — the defining stretch of the Josh Heupel era at Tennessee.
Some inside the program believe, and basically everyone hopes, that Iamaleava’s segment of that era will be two starting seasons. Heupel managed to preserve Iamaleava’s redshirt this season in case that’s not how things go, but that’s the talent level at hand here — a guy who could be in demand in the NFL as soon as he’s eligible. That’s why On3.com ranked Iamaleava the No. 1 overall player in the class of 2023.
And that’s why some Vols fans clamored for him this season while Tennessee’s offense took a giant step backward with Milton at the controls – not all because of Milton, of course, but he also didn’t have the remedy. That would have been the wrong move, though.
Like Young at Alabama and C.J. Stroud at Ohio State and many other successful college quarterbacks, Iamaleava was better off not facing the pressure and the pounding right away. Instead, he faced protein shakes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, adding about 15 needed pounds to a wiry frame listed at 206. He said he learned how to read defenses, an afterthought for an athlete who dominated high school foes. He learned his teammates, too.
“It was huge, man,” a smiling Iamaleava said Thursday after practice into a nest of recorders and microphones of a freshman season backing up Milton. “Going into the season, just having Joe, I knew I was gonna be able to learn a lot, learn how to be a college football player. Learn how to be a pro.”
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That’s a fitting way to put it, and not just because Iamaleava’s NIL deal has been such a talking point. Quarterbacks like this choose programs in part to be developed for the NFL. And when a coach like Heupel gets a quarterback like Iamaleava, it’s kind of like the clock starting on an NFL general manager after he reaches high in the draft for a signal caller.
That quarterback often gets him an extension or a pink slip. If Iamaleava and the Vols are great in 2024 and 2025, which requires qualifying at least once for the 12-team College Football Playoff, Heupel will have earned tenure. More Iamaleavas and more years of Heupel’s brand of football at Tennessee will follow.
If not, well, negativity snowballs in Knoxville at the same breathtaking rate as support and excitement for glimpses of hope. Maybe faster.
If that sounds like a lot of pressure for a 19-year-old, that’s the price of taking on such a task, especially now that prominent college athletes are finally getting their just financial rewards. Everyone knows it. So the Iamaleavas will be judged more like pros than amateurs. Not that social media lacked toxicity before the age of NIL.
Iamaleava seems to have all the tools to be what Tennessee hopes he is. That’s certainly what we hear. The brief glimpses of him this season have been encouraging, but still, just glimpses. Mostly, we’re still leaning on testimonials.
Heupel this week called him “smart, competitive,” capable of putting miscues quickly aside and “extremely talented.” White said: “I feel like he’s a vet already. He’s very smart.”
Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle has called Iamaleava a “high-level talent” who is “extremely twitched up” and benefits from a “curious mind” when it comes to the intricacies of football. Also, “just a normal dude.”
Taken together, this is the description of someone who is the last name Manning away from being the perfect quarterback prospect. And that’s probably a bit much. There’s a decent chance Iowa’s defense, which is one of the best in the country and traditionally as sturdy as Kirk Ferentz’s jaw, will make Iamaleava look very much like a freshman a few times Monday.
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That would not be the worst thing. Some humbling moments, met with encouraging responses, might be the best thing.
“I’m really just looking forward to go out there and get a win, man,” Iamaleava said. “That’s really all I’m looking forward to. However it comes, as long as we come out with the win, I think we’ll be fine.”
He says the right things. They say the right things about him. Now we get to see him, after he has prepared for a legitimate defense, after he has received starter reps in practice, in a bowl game that just got a lot more interesting and will give us a hint of where Tennessee football is going.
“I think Nico’s ready,” said Dylan Sampson, Iamaleava’s main running back Monday and into the fall. “Everybody has full faith and confidence in him and I think it’s just time to, you know, let him go.”
(Top photo: Eakin Howard / Getty Images)