After the departure of Joe Milton to the NFL, the Tennessee Volunteers will be starting second-year former five-star prospect Nico Iamaleava this upcoming season, and it sounds like they’re quite excited to see what he can do.
During a recent interview with On3, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel opened up about how he sees the offense growing with Nico Iamaleava at quarterback after he made his first start against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Citrus Bowl.
“We’ll continue to evolve with Nico and try to put him in the position to be his best,” Heupel said. “I’m real excited to get on the grass with him this spring. He had most of the bowl prep where he was the guy; he prepared for the Citrus Bowl.
“I’ve loved from the day that he got here just his focus in trying to grow and become his best — fundamentally continuing to grow [in] balance and footwork inside of the pocket, which leads to accuracy. His continued growth in understanding defensive ID, recognition, pre-snap reads, and post-snap rotations.”
It sounds like Heupel is extremely impressed by what Iamaleava brings to the table physically and is excited to see him grow as a player.
“He’s very gifted as far as arm talent [and] continuing to become more accurate inside of the pocket,” Heupel gushed. “As a young player, he’s hyper-focused on growing as a player and becoming his best. He’s going to have to continue to grow into a leadership role when you’re playing that position; that’s extremely important.”
We’ll have to see how he performs this season.
[On3]
