Tennessee football was one of multiple top college football teams that suffered a major set back last Saturday as the Vols fell to unranked Arkansas 19-14 in Fayetteville.
On his weekly podcast (The Joel Klatt Podcast), Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt discussed the upset losses and which teams he’s serious concerned about and which ones he thinks will be fine.
“I’m not as worried about Tennessee’s loss,” Klatt said. “This Tennessee team is going to grow through this.”
For Klatt, a former Colorado quarterback who is now the lead college football color commentator for Fox, Tennessee’s offensive issues boil down to quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s struggles in his first two SEC games.
Iamaleava is dealing with what a lot of young quarterbacks deal with, trusting his reads and being decisive with the football when players aren’t running open.
“I saw a guy that was spooked,” Klatt said of Iamaleava. “I saw a guy that held the ball far too long. I did not think his footwork was all that great. There were things there, there were plays to be made. I think that there was some criticism, maybe from people who work on this show, that Josh Heupel was too conservative. But when I watched the film, there were throws to be made. Nico just didn’t pull the trigger. He’s got to learn how to anticipate.”
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Tennessee’s redshirt freshman quarterback completed 16-of-28 passes for 156 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions in the Vols loss at Arkansas. Outside of a 42-yard completion to Dont’e Thornton on a broken play on the final drive, Tennessee’s passing attack was mostly non existent.
Factors around Iamaleava are making his life difficult as well. The pass protection has been shaky at best so far this season and was mostly putrid in the loss at Arkansas. And receivers are not seperating or running open at a high level for Tennessee. But that’s where Klatt says that Iamaleava has to go through his progressions, anticipate and let throws rip with confidence.
“There’s deep in cuts that are there on the second and third progression,” Klatt said. “A lot of what they do is like a choice route to the front side and two in cuts to the wide side of the field. Read the choice and then boom, two, three. He would never get to three. He would just hang on the choice and hang and hang around. He has to get back to the deep in cut. This is what I would do if I were Josh Heupel, I would sit behind him and I would create stress for him in practice.”
But a key aspect to what Klatt believes is that Iamaleava can and will improve. With an elite rushing attack and a stout defense, Tennessee still has the pieces to be a strong team if the passing attack can find a rhythm. That’s why Klatt still believes in the Vols.
“The things that he’s struggling with, he can improve on,” Klatt said. “The structure around him, the supporting cast around him, is still an elite group. I still really like this Tennessee team. … He’s going to be better. I guarantee it. I absolutely guarantee it. So that’s why I’m not as concerned with Tennessee.”
