National media outlet calls Tennessee Vols QB Nico Iamaleava a pretender; Why that's a good thing for UT football
On Thursday, CBS Sports detailed the players that they believe are "contenders" and "pretenders" for the Heisman Trophy in 2025. Tennessee Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava, a former five-star recruit, was labeled by CBS Sports as a "pretender" for the award heading into his redshirt sophomore season. From CBS Sports: Iamaleava showed flashes of greatness in […]
On Thursday, CBS Sports detailed the players that they believe are "contenders" and "pretenders" for the Heisman Trophy in 2025.
Tennessee Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava, a former five-star recruit, was labeled by CBS Sports as a "pretender" for the award heading into his redshirt sophomore season.
From CBS Sports: Iamaleava showed flashes of greatness in his starting debut last season, though consistency escaped him. He failed to break 3,000 yards passing, had just 19 touchdowns through the air and completed less than 65% of his passes. He was held under 200 yards passing in eight of Tennessee's 13 games. There's no denying Iamaleava's raw ability, but he has yet to put it all together. He should improve as he continues to acclimate to the collegiate game and there's a solid shot that he takes a big second-year leap. But a lot of concern about Iamaleava's Heisman upside is beyond his control. Tennessee lost seven receivers to either graduation or the transfer portal, including its three leaders at the position. The Vols return just one scholarship wide receiver with more than one year of college football under his belt. There's talent in the wide receiver room, to be sure, but the lack of experience could create a rough adjustment period early on, which hampers Iamaleava's ability to produce a Heisman-worthy stat line.
I've been pretty vocal this offseason about disagreeing with the narrative that we've seen form around Iamaleava. (There's no need to re-hash all of that, you can check out some thoughts here.)
I'm also not really that passionate about pre-season Heisman Trophy predictions. Trying to guess in February who will win that award in December is a total shot in the dark. The perceived favorite often doesn't win the award.
But with that said, I think it's a good thing for Tennessee football that Iamaleava isn't being plastered all over the place as a Heisman Trophy favorite. Those predictions don't matter at all. They have absolutely no bearing on what actually happens on the field. All it does is create unneeded pressure on players. There's already enough outside noise with social media, message boards, and the 24/7 news cycle. If the national media wants to hype other players more than Iamaleava, then I don't see how that's a bad thing for Tennessee or for Nico.
If anything, maybe it'll give Iamaleava even more of an edge going into the 2025 season. It certainly seems like he's a bit of an afterthought despite being just one of 12 quarterbacks last season to lead his team to a College Football Playoff appearance. Maybe he'll be eager to prove everyone wrong in 2025.
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