Vols QB Nico Iamaleava sounds excited about an important aspect of Tennessee's offense ahead of 2024 season

Tennessee Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava was noticeably excited while speaking with reporters on Thursday about an important aspect of UT's offense in 2024.

At the end of Iamaleava's media session on Thursday, the redshirt freshman quarterback was asked about Tennessee's tight end room, which is headlined by Ethan Davis, Holden Staes, and Miles Kitselman.

Iamaleava told reporters that he's excited about Tennessee's tight ends, while noting that they should be a huge weapon in the red zone.

“We got a good, good tight room, man," said Iamaleava. "All three of them can go. So I’m excited, man. They’re big bodies, big targets that I love throwing to -- especially down in the red zone. Being able to use all three of them in packages, if we have to, I feel like them being on the field down in the red zone will be big for us.”

One of the biggest reasons why Tennessee didn't get to 10 wins last season was because of their struggles in the red zone. When the Vols went 11-2 in 2022, they had the No. 3 red zone offense in the nation. Last season, Tennessee had the No. 73 red zone offense in the nation.

As a result, the Vols have spent a lot of "time on task" this offseason on red zone work.

“Time on task, we spent a bunch of time in that area of the field, both sides of the football," said Vols head coach Josh Heupel earlier this week. "Schematically, subtle changes to what we’ve done. We gotta to be efficient, prolific, throwing football. When you’re off schedule down there, you get into the season, you got to be elite running the football...at the end of the day, we’ve got to go prove it, but we’ve continued to grow in that area.”

Tennessee's elite trio of tight ends should help alleviate some of the red zone issues that we saw from the Vols last season. Those tight ends combined with Iamaleava's ability to score with his legs in the red zone is just one of many reasons why the Volunteers have a chance to make deep playoff run in 2024.

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