On Tuesday, Tennessee Vols offensive coordinator Joey Halzle confirmed a suspicion that plenty of fans had about quarterback Nico Iamaleava during his true freshman season in 2023.
Iamaleava didn't see a lot of action last season while serving as the backup to starter Joe Milton. The California native attempted just 45 passes in five games as a true freshman (including his start against Iowa in the Citrus Bowl).
But during the times that Iamaleava was on the field for the Vols last season, fans noticed that the playbook wasn't very expansive. The expectation when Iamaleava entered games was that fans would see the playbook "open up". Instead, the play calls were mostly "vanilla" for the former five-star recruit.
Halzle explained on Tuesday, while meeting with reporters, that the conservative play calling for Iamaleava last season was by design. The coaching staff didn't want to put too much on the dynamic young quarterback as he continued to master Tennessee's offense.
"When you have a freshman coming in like he was last year and understanding that he was in that (backup) spot, it’s like, alright, how do we give this guy enough to go play well but not just absolutely burden him to the point where now he’s not playing fast, he’s not showing off his athleticism," said Halzle. "So he got that version of the offense last year [and] excelled at it in a high, high way."
"He is blossoming in that and I think we’re going to see his play go to an even higher level," added Halzle. "Which is a scary thing to think about because his just natural ability to step on a football field and go play well is elite. Now he’s got to go do it with live bullets for 17 straight games next year. But we’re really excited about where he’s at mentally in this process.”
Essentially, it sounds like Iamaleava is going to be unleashed in 2024 now that he's had over a year to get comfortable in Tennessee's offense.
And while Tennessee's coaches are clearly excited about his potential, they admitted that they're not even sure how the offense will look quite yet as Nico's first fall camp as the starter gets underway.
“I guess we’ll kind of find out this season," said Halzle when asked about the offense transitioning from Joe Milton to Iamaleava. "For everything you think you know about a guy, until they become the guy for an extended period of time and they got one week to learn an install and go, you don’t really know him. I’m really excited about what he brings to the table. Joe had his own skillset and we catered to that. Nico’s got his own, you’re going to cater to that. So whatever that ends up looking like as we get rolling, it’s going to be actually fun to watch. But really, really excited about what he can bring to the table this fall.”
The excitement on Rocky Top is palpable. You can sense that the offense has some fireworks in store this season. And what we saw from Iamaleava last season is no where close to what we're going to see from him in 2024. We're about to finally see Josh Heupel's offense with his handpicked quarterback at the helm. And that should be a scary thought for the rest of the SEC.
Related: Quote from Nico Iamaleava shows why Vols fans should no longer worry about a big issue that plagued Tennessee in 2022 and 2023
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