'I think he's separated himself' – Tennessee Vols insider details an important under-the-radar position battle
The Tennessee Vols are hoping that starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava stays healthy throughout that the 2025 season and that the program won't need a backup quarterback to play important snaps this fall. The reality is, though, that Tennessee will likely need their backup quarterback to play some keys snaps at some point in 2025 — […]
The Tennessee Vols are hoping that starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava stays healthy throughout that the 2025 season and that the program won't need a backup quarterback to play important snaps this fall.
The reality is, though, that Tennessee will likely need their backup quarterback to play some keys snaps at some point in 2025 — whether that's for one series, a half, or for a spot start (just last season, backup Gaston Moore had to play the entire second half of the Mississippi State game while Iamaleava was in the concussion protocol).
Fortunately for the Vols, it sounds like redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger has stepped up in a big way this spring and seized control of the backup quarterback job (true freshman George MacIntyre would be the other option for the Vols).
That's thanks in large part to a change in the way that Merklinger grips the football, something that VolQuest's Brent Hubbs detailed on Friday during an appearance on 104.5 The Zone's Ramon, Kayla, and Will.
"Everybody knows Nico's the guy, right? But Merklinger, I think, is great story right now," said Hubbs. "A year ago, when you watched Jake Merklinger throw the ball, it felt labored. It felt like he was having to sort of throw his whole body into it. And mechanically, there were some things they were trying to clean up. And then they made a radical shift with him and how he gripped the football. And it's very much like taking a shooter in basketball and completely retooling his shot. Because, you know, Merklinger has spent his entire life throwing a football a certain way, a certain grip. And now you're telling him to hold it differently, do it differently. And the feeling was that he would gain velocity and that he would not necessarily have to gain a bunch of muscle mass in his body to be able to throw the ball further, because he would be better mechanically with this grip and with some motion things.
"And it's taken a while. There's been a lot of painful days in doing that to [create] muscle memory and retrain everything that you know. But I think you're seeing the fruits of that right now. I think he's throwing the ball — you can see it even in routes versus air periods in practice — you could see the ball just comes out of his hands much better. It's livelier, it's got more velocity, it's got more accuracy. I think he used his legs in the (recent) scrimmage. I think he's playing with more confidence right now. He's not going to beat out Nico, okay, but when you talk about who the backup is, I think he's separated himself. You feel comfortable that he's going to be the backup, which means George (MacIntyre) has got all the time he needs to develop and work on some of the similar things, and some tweaks here and there, and obviously the physical development of his body over the course of the next year. Which I think is a blessing and a good thing."
The backup quarterback spot is a position that you hope you never have to utilize if you're a head coach. But it's also once of the most important positions on the roster.
We won't really know what Merklinger has to offer until he sees the field in a competitive situation where the Vols are counting on him to run the offense and put points on the board. But for now, based on Hubbs' report, it sounds like the No. 2 quarterback job at Tennessee belongs to Merklinger. And it sounds like he's ready to thrive if his number is called at any point in 2025.
