Georgia HC Kirby Smart makes admission about Tennessee Vols' QB situation
The Tennessee Vols' quarterback situation is unclear heading into this weekend's big showdown against the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. Vols starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava left Tennessee's 33-14 win last weekend against Mississippi State at halftime after suffering an upper body injury. ESPN's Pete Thamel reported on Tuesday evening that Iamaleava is currently in the concussion […]
The Tennessee Vols' quarterback situation is unclear heading into this weekend's big showdown against the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens.
Vols starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava left Tennessee's 33-14 win last weekend against Mississippi State at halftime after suffering an upper body injury.
ESPN's Pete Thamel reported on Tuesday evening that Iamaleava is currently in the concussion protocol and his status for the Georgia game is "undetermined".
There seems to be optimism in Knoxville that Iamaleava will play against the Bulldogs, but it's still too early in the week to know if he'll progress enough to start on Saturday night in Athens.
If Iamaleava is unable to play against Georgia, backup quarterback Gaston Moore, who played the entire second half against Mississippi State, would likely get the start for the Vols with true freshman quarterback Jake Merklinger serving as the primary backup.
On Tuesday, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was asked about Tennessee's quarterback situation. Smart admitted that preparing for two quarterbacks is a challenge because he isn't sure what the Vols' offensive philosophy will be if Moore starts in place of Iamaleava.
“Yeah, that’s a dilemma," said Smart when asked about Tennessee's quarterback situation. "We don’t know a lot. I’m talking about [Nico's] injury. Like, we don’t really know what’s going on there. It’s hard to figure [out]. We do have, because they had those games early in the year where they beat teams so bad, that Gaston got to play quite a bit. Then we obviously have the game that he played in. That kind of happened in the Florida game because I didn’t know a lot about the kid that came in in the Florida game. And, you know, in this situation, we don’t know [much about Gaston]. So, there is a threat there.
"And Nico’s such a high-level athlete and some of the runs he’s made, I knew the kid was a great thrower, but I didn’t know he was this kind of athlete. And hitting the speeds he’s hitting GPS-wise. And they made a run on Alabama that was really elite. So, just recognizing his skill set is a lot. And trying to prepare for two guys, because philosophically I don’t know how they’ll approach it with the other quarterback.”
There's definitely a certain level of gamesmanship to this situation for Tennessee. There's no reason for the Vols to put a lot of information out there about Iamaleava's status (especially since it truly seems to be up in the air right now). There are only so many hours in the week and Georgia is having to use some of those hours to prepare for a situation (Moore starting in place of Iamaleava) that might not even happen. That's probably not something that's going to swing the game in Tennessee's favor, but it at least makes Georgia spend some time preparing for a situation that they didn't think would be in play prior to last weekend.
The first SEC injury report of the week will be released on Wednesday night. The expectation is that Iamaleava will be listed as questionable. At this point, it seems likely that we won't know until late Friday or early Saturday if the redshirt freshman quarterback will play against the Bulldogs on Saturday night in Athens.
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