Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle knows who his most important players are. That was readily apparent when he took to the podium on Thursday for his last press conference before game week, which begins on Monday.

It didn’t take long for Halzle to be asked about two players that will go a long way to determine just how successful this season is for the Vols: quarterback Nico Iamaleava and receiver Bru McCoy.

“The chemistry between Bru and Nico is great,” said Halzle, who is entering his second season as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator. “They live close to each other. They’re really close off the field. They’re really good friends. Bru has been a great leader, mentor for Nico coming through, who’s stepping into a leadership position. 

“Bru’s done a really good job of helping, bringing him along and all the off field stuff. On field, it’s just reps. It’s just how many times can you throw the same routes together.”

This will be the third quarterback that McCoy has played with since he transferred to Tennessee before the 2022 season, in which he played with former Vol Hendon Hooker. Then, McCoy was teamed with former Vol quarterback Joe Milton before suffering a devastating leg injury that ended his season last year. Per Halzle, McCoy knows what he’s doing no matter his absence as he recovered from leg surgery.

“For Bru, he still runs his stuff the same way,” Halzle said. “He still makes the same breaks. Switching from one quarterback to the next you’ve still got to kind of go do your thing…And the quarterback feeling how he’s going to read the route and them getting on the same page. That’s nothing but rep after rep after rep on the field. And then I know the guys, they spend a lot of time watching tape together, so they watch ‘How do you see this’ and they can get synced up.”

McCoy may not be the Vol who tells Iamaleava where to throw the ball, although he surely would like it to come his way. However, McCoy’s biggest impact on Iamaleava may be how he’s helped the uber-hyped, redshirt freshman take over as the Vols’ starter.

“Just a lot of helping him try to manage pressure and dealing with a lot of expectations,” McCoy said when asked how he’s aided Iamaleava. “He’s done a great job in how he’s carried himself, how he’s been a leader on the team. So I just tried to kind of help show him in an easier path not making similar mistakes to myself and just creating good habits and setting daily things. Things that have helped me since I’m just an older guy, so kind of trying to get him to skip some steps and learning lessons.”

Iamaleava is certainly grateful.

“He’s brought me along a long way man,” he said. “Just learning from Bru how to carry yourself on and off the field, I feel like I learned a great amount. And yeah, me and Bru have always had a tight relationship, so I can’t wait to go out there and play with him on the field.” 

While they took different paths, both players are from Southern California. In fact, Iamaleava remembers watching McCoy play in high school.

“When I was younger, man, I thought Bru was the greatest high school player of all the time,” Iamaleava said. “The first guy I had ever seen play receiver and D-end at the same time. So seeing him come off the edge and have five sacks and then go score three touchdowns right after was crazy for me to watch. And yeah, Bru always been the top player of mine.”

As long as things go according to plan, Iamaleava will be the top player delivering McCoy the ball because, as of now, there are zero plans to play McCoy at defensive end. There are also no plans for Iamaleava to play any defense. His path is well defined. He’s set to be the starting quarterback for Tennessee. How do you go about that? When Iamaleava was willing to ask for advice about being a quarterback at Tennessee, he knew exactly who to call.

“Really only Joe and Hendon,” Iamaleava said. “…the two guys I pretty much talked to. Going into college and I talked to (former Alabama quarterback) Bryce (Young) and (former Ohio State quarterback) C.J. (Stroud). What it takes to play at this level. So really Joe and Hendon as of recently have been the two guys that mentored me (when it came to playing quarterback).”

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean Iamaleava didn’t have an eye on his No. 1 target this fall.

“Bru’s one of the hardest workers I know,” Iamaleava said. “So I see him everyday go out there and work and put his head down. It makes me want to go out there and work even harder. So it’s definitely exciting to see him get back into his own…so hopefully we’ll get to show you me and Bru’s connection.”

That’s what Tennessee’s offense is banking on.