DALLAS, Texas – It doesn’t take an NFL scout to determine that Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava has all the physical ability needed to excel in college. Just turn on the video. However, there’s more. And people are noticing.
Josh Pate of 247Sports is one of the latest to hear, feel and sense that Iamaleava is mature beyond his years. Pate has gleaned as much from his conversations with Tennessee’s coaching staff in the offseason and with Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel during SEC Media Days in Dallas this week.
“What I thought was noteworthy was Josh Heupel sort of voluntarily continuing to pound the table for the intangibles,” Pate said, referring to Heupel’s take on Iamaleava, “which normally we hear about (Georgia senior quarterback) Carson Beck or someone like that, someone who’s been in the game for a long time.”
That’s not Iamaleava. He’s only started one game for the Vols, a 35-0 blowout win against Iowa in the Citrus Bowl. Other than that, Iamaleava was only used in mop-up duty as former Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton started all 12 regular season games. However, it doesn’t feel like Iamaleava is just getting his career going, which is actually the case.
“If you’ve just been introduced to college football, let’s say you’re an NFL guy, so you know the game but you don’t know the sport of college football and you went on that trip with me (to Knoxville) or you lived in the market and you just listened to the way the staffers talk on and off the record about it, you would think ‘Does that guy have two years under his belt starting or something like that?’” Pate said. “The way they talk about him is very atypical for a first-time starter. It’s normally an entrenched guy who’s got multiple years of service so you know that means those intangibles are there, both from an individual and a team aspect. And when you got it, amazing things can happen.”
“Everybody’s talented to certain degrees. How many times do we see five-star quarterbacks not pan out? Here’s a fun exercise: Take the current active five-star quarterbacks, the guys that were five-star out of high school, and ask yourself how many of them have truly played in their college career at a five-star level.”
“The list is very short. And I don’t think that’s because the recruiting industry whiffed on their physical capability. I just think it’s because there’s that intangible factor that’s tough to master. So if you have it, you don’t take it for granted. I think there’s also that pressure, too, of being that, and he seems to cope with that well.”
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One Response
Love the qb at ut great coach!