Tennessee's decision to start Nico Iamaleava caught Iowa off guard
The Tennessee Vols have been preparing for a week for true freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava to start in the Citrus Bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Vols head coach Josh Heupel revealed on Wednesday that Nico has been taking the majority of the quarterback reps since before the early signing period started last week. The news […]
The Tennessee Vols have been preparing for a week for true freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava to start in the Citrus Bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Vols head coach Josh Heupel revealed on Wednesday that Nico has been taking the majority of the quarterback reps since before the early signing period started last week.
The news didn't become official, however, until Wednesday when redshirt senior Joe Milton announced his decision to opt out of the Citrus Bowl.
Tennessee's decision to hold off on revealing the news publicly was almost certainly an act of gamesmanship from Heupel and his staff — to make Iowa prepare for Milton for as long as possible.
And it worked.
Iowa defensive back Quinn Schulte was speaking with reporters on Wednesday when he learned the news that Nico would be starting instead of Milton.
"Oh he did?" said Schulte when informed by a reporter that Milton opted out. "We didn't even know that. Whoever I guess the quarterback is then we gotta be ready to go. They're still going to be running the same stuff probably and be able to execute well so we gotta be ready."
"Not a whole not, no, this is news to me today to be honest with you," added Schulte when asked if Iowa has watched film on Iamaleava. "So obviously we're going to have to go back and take a look."
There won't be much for Iowa to discover on film from watching Nico — except maybe the fact that he has excellent pocket presence. Otherwise, most of the plays that Nico ran in 2023 were pretty vanilla as the bulk of his playing time came in mop-up duty with most of the starters out.
If Tennessee wants to try some new things with Nico that weren't put on film in 2023, the Citrus Bowl matchup against Iowa would be the perfect time.
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