What Nico Iamaleava said after No. 7 Tennessee’s win over Kentucky
Nico Iamaleava completed 28 of 38 passes for 292 yards and a touchdown in No. 7 Tennessee’s 28-18 win over Kentucky Saturday night at Neyland Stadium.
Here’s everything Tennessee’s redshirt freshman quarterback said during his press conference after the win:
The pass to Tennessee receiver Dont’e Thornton on third down in the second half, if that was a throw he only makes when he’s feeling confident
“I feel confident in every throw. Any throw out there, I think I got the most confidence in my receivers to go make that play, my tight ends to go make that play, for sure.”
If he says anything to Tennessee receivers after drops happen on the field
“I’m still instilling confidence to my guys on the sideline. Everybody messes up. Everybody has their play. You got to be able to pick your teammates up. And, yeah, man, I just tell them boys, I’m going to keep coming to y’all on any of them routes, I’m a keep coming to y’all.”
How he would assess his play in Tennessee’s win over Kentucky, his thoughts on throwing 38 passes
“I was just taking what the defense was giving me. Quick stuff was out there. In the deep game, it was there. I was just I was taking what the defense was giving me.”
Helping push the pile into the end zone on Dylan Sampson’s second touchdown run
“Shoot, I think I contributed some. I’ve seen Samp break a couple of tackles, and, man, he was like at the four (yard line) and I was like, dang, is he really going to get in? So I I just decided to go up and push that pile.
And I was happy to see him break that (single-season rushing touchdown) record.”
How they evaluate the Tennessee offense after a game like that
“Man, still too many missed opportunities out there. We got to put it all together in one of these games. And I believe it’ll be the next game. So we got to clean up a lot of stuff, a lot of penalties in the first half. And, yeah man, just missed opportunities down the field that we got to connect on. And, yeah, it’s coming, man. I keep telling my guys we got to keep going and it’ll pop eventually.”
The touchdown pass to Miles Kitselman, if that was a ready by him or an RPO
“It was it was a slip that was supposed to go to Holden Staes to the flat. And me and Miles kinda just improvised. He wasn’t supposed to be on the rail right there, but I seen him open up and he made a great play.”
Josh Heupel saying Iamaleava had a great game, if he felt that way himself
“It was it was OK. Got to keep getting better. The sky is the limit for this whole offense. And for me, too, (I) got to keep playing better.”
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