Tennessee HC Josh Heupel comments on how ready Nico Iamaleava is to play important snaps in 2023
In a perfect world, Tennessee Vols true freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava, the top player in the 2023 recruiting class, won't start a single game this fall. The hope for Iamaleava, who will operate as Tennessee's primary backup to redshirt senior Joe Milton, is that the true freshman only sees action in garbage time (similar to […]
In a perfect world, Tennessee Vols true freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava, the top player in the 2023 recruiting class, won't start a single game this fall.
The hope for Iamaleava, who will operate as Tennessee's primary backup to redshirt senior Joe Milton, is that the true freshman only sees action in garbage time (similar to Milton last season before Hendon Hooker suffered an unfortunate season-ending injury against South Carolina).
Of course, things rarely work out "perfectly" for any team in college football.
There's a good chance that Iamaleava will see some important snaps for Tennessee at some point in 2023. It could be one snap, one series, one half, or a whole game. You never know when an injury, even a minor one, could happen.
History suggests, however, that Milton will have to at least miss a couple of key snaps at some point this fall.
And if that happens, Vols head coach Josh Heupel is confident that Iamaleava will be ready to go.
“I think he’s ready to play at a really high level," said Heupel on Monday. "All young quarterbacks, it’s different when you get out there and it’s lot of bullets and you don’t have a right jersey on. But feel really good about where he’s at, command of our offense, being a really sound decision-maker, fundamentally being able to get himself in a good position to be consistently accurate with the ball. I like what he’s done.”
“As a young man coming into a program, understanding the standards that we have here," continued Heupel while discussing Iamaleava. "But the demands of playing quarterback at this level. Being able to start to grasp and understand what’s going on from us up front, protections, defensive structure. Being able to see and recognize, anticipate and see post snap rotations from the back end. At the end of the day, controlling his job and having his eyes in the right spot. He’s a dramatically different player than he was in spring ball. Love the steps that he took in the spring, too. This football team’s got a lot of trust in him.”
It certainly sounds like Heupel is happy with where Iamaleava is at as a quarterback. Heupel feels like Nico is ready to play at a high level if his number is called. And Heupel has been around college football long enough to know it's likely that Nico's number will indeed be called at some point this fall.
Fortunately for the Vols, it sounds like the offense will be expected to operate at a high level regardless of whether or not it's Milton or Iamaleava under center.
Vols HC Josh Heupel hilariously responds to good natured trash talk from one of his players
Tennessee Vols HC Josh Heupel hilariously responded to some good natured trash talk from one of his players
Featured image via Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
