Nico Iamaleava’s first start on the Third Saturday in October did not go well for the first 30 minutes of Tennessee’s 24-17 win over Alabama. He missed open throws down the field. He forced a pass into coverage that was intercepted in the red zone and the redshirt freshman even exited the game briefly with an injury in the first half.
Frankly, it was one of the worst halves of football any Tennessee quarterback has played in Josh Heupel’s three-plus seasons as head coach and it in part led to the Vols’ third straight scoreless first half.
“Nico (Iamaleava has) to settle in a little bit earlier,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said postgame. “Things down the football field that we got to execute.”
The redshirt freshman responded in impressive fashion in the second half. He wasn’t perfect and the stats, seven-of-13 passing for 95 yards, were nothing special. But he made some big plays when it counted, including two money balls on third down.
On third-and-six late in the third quarter, Iamaleava rolled right and dropped a deep ball right into Dont’e Thornton’s for a 55-yard gain. It set up first-and-goal and Dylan Sampson ran it in a play later.
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Then on third-and-five with just over five minutes to play, Iamaleava threw another beautiful ball that Chris Brazzell hauled in for a 16-yard touchdown.
“Young quarterback. It’s going to continue to get better,” Heupel said. “But to me, quarterbacks, it’s toughness. It’s mental toughness. And it matters the most. How do you perform? And how do you control the game? And there’s a lot of things, just physical, mental toughness that I really liked tonight. Obviously there’s some things we got to get better at home too. Keep pushing for that.”
In the long term, Iamaleava’s mental toughness might be what’s most encouraging about his performance. He made some big time plays in big moments in a game that he struggled badly in for large portions of the game.
In the short term, the biggest positive for Iamaleava might be how Tennessee used his legs. The tall quarterback ran for 44 yards on nine carries. He had a net positive of over 60 rushing yards but was sacked two times. His 27-yard scramble set up Tennessee’s first touchdown of the night.
Iamaleava showed growth and maturity in Tennessee’s win over Alabama. If he builds of it, the Vols have real reasons for optimism the rest of the way.
