Breathe easy Tennessee football fans excited for the new EA Sports College Football game.
Nico Iamaleava is in the game.
The Vols’ starting quarterback announced the news on his Instagram account on Friday afternoon with the official game trailer for the renewal of the highly popular sports video game. Check out the full trailer, including multiple shots of Tennessee football, here.
“It’s not #CFB25 without 8,” Iamaleava wrote in his caption. “I’m in the game.”
It’s the first college football video game since EA’s NCAA Football 2014. The popular franchise ended for a decade because of Name, Image and Likeness lawsuits. But with NIL now a prominent part of college sports, the game is making its return after a decade hiatus.
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One pertinent note from ESPN’s article on the return of the game is that Tennessee’s “Checker Neyland” will seemingly be in the game.
“Understanding the crowd’s importance to college football, McLeod said he knew they had to ‘make sure that crowd looks amazing.’ Are the bands in the right place? The visitor sections? The patterns some schools have within their crowds — think Tennessee’s Checkerboard and Penn State’s White Out games,” ESPN’s Michael Rothstein wrote. “The design team entered the empty virtual stadium and tagged where everything would be, a process taking multiple weeks.”
Nico Iamaleava is entering his redshirt freshman season and his first season as the Vols’ full-time starting quarterback.
The former five-star recruit played in five games, starting one game, during his true freshman season where he completed 28-of-45 passes for 314 yards and two touchdowns. In the Vols’ Citrus Bowl win over Iowa, Iamaleava completed 12-of-19 passes for 151 yards and one touchdown while adding 27 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
EA College Football comes out on July 19 with people who preorder the deluxe version able to get it three days earlier. Tennessee football opens up its 2024 season on Aug. 24 against UTC.
