Tennessee Vols redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava had a rough night in UT's 19-14 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday night in Fayetteville.
It wasn't a disaster, Iamaleava didn't turn the ball over, and it wasn't all his fault that Tennessee only scored 14 points (the Vols' offensive line didn't protect very well, for example). But it was still obvious that Iamaleava wasn't at his best against the Razorbacks. He looked unconfident and shaky at times. And it felt like he held on to the ball too long a few times. Iamaleava's play to end the game, running out of bounds with no time left on the clock with the Volunteers down by five, is something that will likely haunt him for a long time.
But here's the thing -- and it's something that every Vols fan and media analyst needs to hear -- Iamaleava is still an incredibly young player that doesn't have a ton of on-field experience.
The California native made just his sixth career start in Tennessee's loss to Arkansas (it was Nico's first loss as a starter).
It's truly ridiculous to see some of the expectations that are put on young quarterbacks these days. Iamaleava can't even legally drink alcohol and yet there are grown men who are complaining about how much NIL money he's making, or throwing shade at him because of how the Arkansas game ended (that one play isn't why the Vols lost, by the way).
Look, it's not fair to anyone -- Nico, his family, the UT program, his teammates, etc -- to expect a 20 year old quarterback to be a finished product who operates like an NFL signal caller. Iamaleava is still developing. He's seeing things from SEC defenses for the first time (especially since it seems that opposing defenses are throwing unique looks at the Vols). And he's experiencing playing on the road in the SEC for the first time. Iamaleava is obviously extremely talented and he has an incredibly high ceiling. But you can't fast-track experience. And right now, Iamaleava is gaining valuable experience that will pay off down the road. He's going to be better because of some of the offensive struggles that Tennessee's experienced early this season.
I know we've seen young quarterbacks lead teams to championships at times in the past -- Trevor Lawrence at Clemson in 2018, Tua Tagovailoa at Alabama in 2017, Jameis Winston at Florida State in 2013, etc -- but that's not the norm -- especially in the NIL/transfer portal era.
Just look at the last five national championship winning quarterbacks:
2019 -- Joe Burrow (LSU) -- Redshirt senior
2020 -- Mac Jones (Alabama) -- Redshirt Junior
2021 -- Stetson Bennett (Georgia) -- Fifth-year Senior
2022 -- Stetson Bennett (Georgia) -- Sixth-year Senior
2023 -- JJ McCarthy (Michigan) -- Junior
I know the Vols have national championship hopes this season, and maybe they still get there (there's a lot of season left and plenty of twists and turns ahead), but this idea that Iamaleava has to lead Tennessee to a natty in 2024 (or even a deep playoff run) is absurd. And that's not to make an excuse for Iamaleava, he needs to get better and he'll be the first to tell folks that, but it's not fair to him as a player to ignore the developmental process and everything that goes into that. Development for quarterbacks isn't always linear. Sometimes it goes smooth for some quarterbacks due to their situations, other times it's not quite as smooth.
In Iamaleava's case, he took over an offense a year after learning from a quarterback in Joe Milton that wasn't able to operate the offense at a high level. This is no shade at Milton, but it's not like Iamaleava had a Heisman candidate to learn from last season.
The expectations started getting a little out of control for Iamaleava during the offseason. And they went straight to an unrealistic level after the first month of the season. A loss to Arkansas doesn't change Iamaleava's elite upside. It doesn't change that he can be a special player for the Vols. All it means is that he hasn't completely arrived just yet. And guess what, there's nothing wrong with that. Iamaleava is still growing, he's still learning, and he's still developing. There are no shortcuts when it comes to that process. That's something that a lot of folks -- specifically the national media -- need to remember moving forward.
Related: Josh Heupel made a brutal mistake at end of Arkansas game that hurt Tennessee Vols' chances of scoring
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