The expanded College Football Playoff made America’s greatest sport similar to every other sport in one crucial way: You want to be playing your best when the postseason hits. In the year of the inaugural 12-team CFP, Tennessee is following that rule to a Power T.
UT’s $2 million quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, has thrown four touchdown passes in back to back games despite never doing that beforehand. You can say it was against the UTEP Miners and Vanderbilt Commodores, but Vandy did beat the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Iamaleava struggled all year as a redshirt freshman. Despite a ton of hype in the offseason that he was created in a lab to run Josh Heupel’s offense, a litany of issues plagued him for most of the year, from horrendous pass protection on the outside to injuries and inconsistent play at wide receiver to new defensive schemes against Heupel’s offense.
Then there was the simple fact that Iamaleava lost confidence for a bit.
Through all of this, Tennessee went three straight games without scoring in the first half and four straight without scoring in the first quarter. The Vols are still victims of horrendous starts, but they are finding their rhythm earlier, and when they do, they are torching teams.
Now, Iamaleava enters the postseason with the growing pains seemingly behind him. You know those NCAA Tournament seasons in men’s basketball where the young team that was a lower seed makes a deep run and maybe wins a national title because they finally figured it out? Yeah, that’s Tennessee.
Helping matters is that Iamaleava has a bit of moxy in him now that we didn’t see earlier in the year. After throwing the go-ahead touchdown pass to Miles Kitselman at Vandy on Saturday at the end of the first half, he went and started jawing with a couple of defenders. That was after directing a 96-yard touchdown drive in two minutes. The Heupel offense looks back with him.
Beyond Iamaleava, the tackles are healthy, so John Campbell Jr. and Lance Heard can’t shoulder anymore blame. Iamaleava has established a rapport with his receivers. The running game, which has been dominant all year with Dylan Sampson, hasn’t dropped off as the passing game has picked up. Neither has the defense.
It’s the perfect situation for the CFP.
Could Iamaleava be the breakout star of the postseason? It’s possible. He would then be the story of college football entering 2025, and the Vols would be the sexiest team to talk about. Consensus was that would be the case this year, but development took more time than we initially thought.
Now, UT is set to take the college football world by storm. The Vols may have cost themselves a bye, a league title and a potentially easier road, but they are in, and once you’re in, anything can happen. For better or for worse, teams don’t get punished for issues in September or October anymore. That works right in this team’s favor.
