It’s not guaranteed that Tennessee will make the playoffs and the road became a bit more hazy on Saturday night after the Vols’ loss to Georgia.
We’ll have to wait and see what the third edition of the College Football Playoff Rankings looks like on Tuesday evening, but Tennessee is going to likely need a bit of help from teams falling out of the Top 12 in order for them to slide into a playoff spot.
Most importantly, though, Tennessee just has to win. A loss in the final two weeks of the regular season would be detrimental to Tennessee’s playoff chances and would nearly lock in the Vols for a non-playoff bowl game this winter.
It’ll take a lot of toughness from Tennessee to bounce back from the Georgia loss and get back on the right track. Fortunately for Tennessee, Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart sees that from the Vols’ signal caller.
“It’s hard to get him down,” Smart said about Nico Iamaleava on Saturday after the game. “I mean, that guy is a tough competitor, now. I mean I’ve got a lot of respect for him – to go through what he went through this week and break tackles, he’s got great quickness, great vision, and he’s a really talented quarterback with a bright future.”
More from RTI: ESPN’s Paul Finebaum Makes the Case for Tennessee in the Playoffs Despite Georgia Loss
Iamaleava started the game in Athens for Tennessee after being listed as questionable for most of the week leading into the game. The Tennessee quarterback suffered a big hit against Mississippi State that took him out of the game and into concussion protocol, but Iamaleava was able to bounce back throughout the week to get ready for Saturday’s game.
Iamaleava ran 12 times for 24 yards on Saturday afternoon, taking a few big hits in the process but continuing to get up to play the next play.
The Tennessee quarterback’s toughness stood out to Smart and is something that the Vols’ need will need to have in order to climb into a playoff position over the final two weeks of the regular season.
It won’t be the last meeting between Kirby Smart and Nico Iamaleava and while it doesn’t seem too likely, could perhaps even happen again this season depending on a number of different scenarios in the college football playoffs. But Smart is one of the sport’s best coaches and clearly sees Iamaleava as a formidable foe because of the toughness he brings to the table.
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was asked on Monday if he feels like the culture of his program is built to withstand a late-season blow such as the Georgia loss as the team now has a different route to achieve the goals they set out at the beginning of the year. Heupel believes that the culture does fit that mold and it’s hard to believe that the quarterback’s toughness isn’t part of that.
“This group’s extremely competitive,” Heupel said on Monday. “They work hard. They made last week a big game because of what they’ve invested. They certainly (know) today how we can, we need to be better, things that we control. It’s a group that’s been competitive on the grass and on Saturdays. And this is the next step for us. And you guys have heard me say it before, but we’re in the arena, right? We got to go make it happen. We got to continue to grow. And they recognize the opportunity that we have this week, so expect everybody to respond in a really positive way. It was that way today.”
Tennessee (8-2) will host UTEP (2-8) on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. ET in Neyland Stadium. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage of the game in Knoxville on Saturday.
“That guy’s a tough competitor now. I got a lot of respect for him to go through what he went through this week…he’s a really talented quarterback with a bright future.” — Kirby Smart on Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava pic.twitter.com/nYGv6aqQjN
— zach ragan (@zachTNT) November 17, 2024
