Nico Iamaleava is missing wide open receivers for touchdowns. Those plays are the hallmark of Josh Heupel’s offense. The misses are happening, however, because of what Iamaleava has been coached to do and how teams have adjusted.
Heupel’s offense, which is its own twist on the veer and shoot, asks quarterbacks to survey only half the field. Their job is to read the safety on that side to determine whether or not they are going to throw it deep, take the underneath route, hand the ball off on an RPO or run themselves.
In last week’s College Football Playoff matchup, the Ohio State Buckeyes countered by guessing which half of the field Iamaleava is going to read and moving both safeties over to that side. They willingly left a receiver open on the other side, knowing it would make no difference.
That was never more clear than on the opening drive of the second half, which you can see here. UT had cut a 21-0 deficit to 21-10 at halftime and then got the ball to start the third quarter. With a chance to cut it to a one-score game, Bru McCoy was wide open down the sideline for a touchdown. Iamaleava was looking the other way, though, and scrambled for a minor gain.
There was another play in that game in which Iamaleava missed a check down to Dylan Sampson that could have turned into a big gain. Against the Arkansas Razorbacks, on a potential final game-winning drive, Iamaleava missed another check down to Sampson that would have gone for a score.
On all of those plays, the defense rolled both safeties over to one side. This is the difference. Heupel’s offense was all about reading which route the safety tries to take, but with both safeties on one side, it all goes south. As a result, it’s back to the drawing board for this coaching staff.
Maybe this is why the veer and shoot struggled this year. Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans had a horrendous offense in 2024. Jeff Lebby had a bad start to his tenure with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Heupel’s $2 million man came nowhere close to earning what he was paid.
None of this is to question Iamaleava’s toughness. He put his heart on the line for the Vols at OSU. All of this is the fault of the game plan and the offensive scheme. Until he is able to fix those issues, this is going to be a common occurrence in the future for Heupel and the Vols.
So what’s the fix?
Well, it may seem complicated, but he’s going to have to figure out a way for his quarterbacks to be able to survey the whole field more quickly. The advantage of utilizing half the field may be gone, and it’s certainly gone when you face a team with athletic cornerbacks like OSU.
How to figure that out is way above my pay grade, but if Heupel doesn’t, then in a few years, he himself won’t be above my pay grade. This is a giant red flag for everybody who has adopted any variation of this offense going forward, especially as teams get more athletic. It’s time for Heupel to adjust.
2 Responses
The passing portion of this offense has definitely been neutralized, but not the running game. Although a lot of the problem could be linked to receivers dropping catchable passes (especially on deep balls), you pointed out something that was obviously, because the passing game has been reduced to a station-to-station system on anything that is short-to-intermediate range.
I have to wonder how adjusting this offense to get the ball out in space will play out, and will it impact the running game? The running game, for the second straight, led the SEC in rushing.
You compare the ’22 offense to this season…….there’s no comparison. This is not the same offense compared to Alex. As a matter of fact, this isn’t the tempo offense. It’s an offense you see on Friday nights. Therefore, Joey Halzle needs to go PERIOD!