{"id":61042,"date":"2024-07-16T18:33:59","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T23:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=61042"},"modified":"2024-07-16T18:33:59","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T23:33:59","slug":"all-the-talk-was-on-nico-iamaleava-for-tennessees-day-in-dallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/all-the-talk-was-on-nico-iamaleava-for-tennessees-day-in-dallas\/","title":{"rendered":"All the talk was on Nico Iamaleava for Tennessee\u2019s day in Dallas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone knew coming into the day that outside of the Josh Heupel<\/strong> \u2013 Oklahoma connection discussion, all the talk regarding Tennessee football was going to be on first-year starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava<\/a>. <\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

And rightfully so. The rising redshirt-freshman was a heralded recruit and the No. 1 player in the country for the Class of 2023, according to On3. He\u2019s the biggest modern day signee in program history for the Vols and one who will finally get his opportunity to lead the first-team huddle this fall. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWas highly recruited because of his athletic traits. He\u2019s got the ability to throw the football sideline to sideline, vertically down the football field, extremely accurate, loose, quick-triggered arm,\u201d Heupel said on Tuesday at SEC Media Days<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cHe\u2019s got the ability to extend and make plays with his feet. As a runner, evading and making a play down the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Nico this past spring and currently during the summer period, it\u2019s about learning to be a leader and earning the trust of his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that I\u2019ve loved about Nico is when he came into the building, he wanted to earn the respect of his teammates, and you do that through your actions, not your words,\u201d the coach continued. \u201cEverybody understands how hard he works to become the best that he can at his craft. He takes great ownership in his skill set and developing it, understanding of our offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Joe Milton opted out of the Citrus Bowl against Iowa on new Year\u2019s Day, Iamaleava started his first game. In doing so, the freshman shined with four total touchdowns (three rushing, one passing), on 12-of-17 passing for 151 yards and 27 yards on the ground. The quarterback took home MVP honors for the bowl game. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best compliments you can give to a quarterback is when they go from the practice field to the game field, it slows down for them,\u201d Heupel said. \u201cDuring the course of the bowl game, it slowed down for him. Thought he was in great command out there. Now, there\u2019s a lot of things that he learned from that game. He\u2019s had a great urgency in his preparation all off season. I\u2019m really excited to see his growth and development as a young quarterback throughout the course of this \u201924 journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what are the expectations for the young signal-caller in 2024? The fourth-year head coach hopes for Iamaleava to \u2018hit the ground running\u2019 with a roster that has improved greatly over the course of his time on Rocky Top. With the 12-team College Football Playoff now operational, Tennessee can absolutely be in contention for its first-ever playoff berth. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, that stems on good quarterback play, along with other factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want him to hit the ground running. He\u2019s a young quarterback. Played really well in the bowl game. He\u2019s going to continue to grow,\u201d the coach said. \u201cThrough all of his experiences here throughout the course of the season, he\u2019s only going to continue to get better from all of those. But we expect him to play at a really high level from the very beginning, and we need that from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all the praise and excitement surrounding Tennessee\u2019s new quarterback, why wasn\u2019t he resent at SEC media Days in Dallas on Tuesday? It has nothing to do with Iamaleava, according to Heupel, but more to do with some veterans (Keenan Pili<\/a><\/strong>, Cooper Mays<\/a><\/strong>, Omari Thomas<\/a><\/strong>)and their leadership that will also be paramount for this team\u2019s success in 2024. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about why I didn\u2019t bring Nico. It\u2019s about why the three guys that I talked about earlier are here,\u201d Heupel concluded. \u201cThese are guys that are in six-year-plus that have unique stories and are great ambassadors, but great leaders inside of our program; and felt like, you know, in our track record, my track record of who we brought here, we\u2019ve brought veteran guys, and so it\u2019s not about Nico. It\u2019s about these three guys, why we made that choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iamaleava and his teammates will break for the start of fall camp on Wednesday, July 31 with the first game of the season against UT Chattanooga taking place at the end of the month on Saturday, August 31.<\/a><\/p>\n

The post All the talk was on Nico Iamaleava for Tennessee\u2019s day in Dallas<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone knew coming into the day that outside of the Josh Heupel \u2013 Oklahoma connection…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61075,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61042\/revisions\/61075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}