Here’s the generic narrative surrounding Tennessee Football: The Vols were 11-2 and in the top 10 in 2022 thanks to Josh Heupel’s cutting-edge offense. They had a drop-off in 2023, going 9-4 because of the transition from Hendon Hooker to Joe Milton III, a quarterback not fit for Heupel’s offense.
In 2024, though, the Vols should look more like the 2022 offense thanks to Nico Iamaleava, whom everybody believes should be elite. Meanwhile, Heupel says across the board this is the deepest team he’s had since he took over Rocky Top in 2021.
If all that is true, Tennessee Football should at least perform as well as it did in 2022, right? That means College Football Playoff or bust, as they would’ve made a 12-team CFP two years ago. Well early media projections predict otherwise. The EA Sports College Football 25 video game doesn’t even have the Vols in the top 25.
Meanwhile, most preseason rankings have the Vols in the 10 to 20 range, and in many cases, Iamaleava is not considered a top five quarterback in the SEC entering the season. How, given what analysts are saying and what Heupel did in 2022, could anybody have that philosophy?
This is why former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Greg McElroy of SEC Network named Iamaleava as his surprise Heisman quarterback and Tennessee Football a top 10 team. If the Vols are to return to form offensively in 2022, then they should return to the wins of that year, and Iamaleava should be a Heisman finalist.
Remember, with Hooker that year, the Vols didn’t just go 11-2. They reached No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings at one point, and had there been a 12-team CFP like this upcoming year, they’d have easily gotten in. Hooker would’ve gone to New York as a Heisman finalist without a late injury as well.
How could you see that and have the Vols with Iamaleava and more depth than ever before looking more like the 2023 team than the 2022 team? If you don’t consider Iamaleava a top five quarterback nationally and the Vols a top 10 team, that’s exactly what you’re doing.
There seems to be a disconnect, and a number of things could be causing it. Perhaps after 2023 there is a narrative that defensive coordinators are figuring out Heupel’s offense. Perhaps that’s true, but if it is, you shouldn’t expect it under Iamaleava to be much better than it was under Milton.
To this point, the only explanation is that the past decade-plus has taken away national media’s ability to objectively have faith in Tennessee Football, and it’s hard to blame them. They’ve been burned too many times in the past betting on the Vols, and one elite season like 2022 won’t change that. UT has to prove them wrong again.
