Despite not being in attendance for Tennessee’s slate at SEC Media Days on Tuesday, Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava was still a major talking point for Tennessee’s representatives at the event in Dallas, TX.
Head coach Josh Heupel opted to continue his trend of bringing veteran senior players to the event as the representatives of the program. As Heupel mentioned on Tuesday, his choice to not bring Iamaleava wasn’t about whether the quarterback could handle the day but instead about the five-year-plus seniors earning the right to represent the program in their final year. Heupel was flanked by Omari Thomas, Keenan Pili, and Cooper Mays for the kickoff event.
“It’s not about why I didn’t bring Nico,” Heupel said while answering the question on the main stage. “It’s about why the three guys that I talked about earlier are here. These 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’ve brought veteran guys, and so it’s not about Nico. It’s about these three guys, why we made that choice.”
Still, though, the Vols’ young quarterback is one of the more talked-about players on the Tennessee roster because of his highly-touted recruitment, unique style, and strong play in a shutout victory during the Citrus Bowl to close out his first season with the program. Heupel will give the keys to the offense to the second-year quarterback this fall believing that Iamaleava has the right tools and traits to lead the Tennessee offense despite his youth.
“I certainly hope not,” Heupel said on if he expects it to take time for Iamaleava to get his feet under him. “You know what I mean? We want him to hit the ground running. He’s a young quarterback. Played really well in the bowl game. He’s going to continue to grow. Through all of his experiences here throughout the course of the season, he’s 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.”
Before either of those statements came on the main stage, the longest answer of Heupel’s SEC Media Days appearance by far was praising his quarterback’s work ethic, preparation, habits, and overall talent ahead of the season.
Here’s what Heupel said about Nico Iamaleava early in his press conference:
“Yeah. Was highly recruited because of his athletic traits. He’s got the ability to throw the football sideline to sideline, vertically down the football field, extremely accurate, loose, quick-triggered arm. He’s got the ability to extend and make plays with his feet. As a runner, evading and making a play down the field. The thing that I’ve 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. Everybody 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, and just, you know, as a young player, gets his first start in the bowl game. One 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 ’em. During the course of the bowl game, it slowed down for him. Thought he was in great command out there. Now, there’s a lot of things that he learned from that game. He’s had a great urgency in his preparation all off season. I’m really excited to see his growth and development as a young quarterback throughout the course of this ’24 journey.”
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Heupel wasn’t the only one asked about Iamaleava as Tennessee center Cooper Mays was as well. Mays fielded a few questions about his quarterback during the event and spoke highly of his ability to soak in information while translating it to on-field actions at a high level.
“Really excited for Nico, a kid that has come in and just gotten right to work and been really humble and really a kid that’s willing to soak up any information that anybody will give him,” Mays said on Tuesday.
Tennessee linebacker Keenan Pili also shared some of his thoughts on Iamaleava as the two square off against each other on opposite sides of the field during practice. With Pili being the “quarterback” of the Vols’ defense, it’s a great practice matchup between a highly skilled young quarterback and a mature veteran linebacker.
“Yeah. I think we all know Nico,” Pili said. “He’s very talented. The physical part is pretty easy to see when you see Nico play. One thing I’ve seen from Nico over this offseason is really his mental side of the game and his growth as a player. He’s really found a way to get some respect in the locker room, just his humility has drawn a lot of people to want him to lead, and I think that’s kind of been one of his greatest attributes so far and the way he leads us is through that.”
