I’m not sure what Vol fans expected for the Tennessee season opener but I’m relatively sure most got more than they expected from Josh Heupel’s fourth Vols team. There may be some fans underestimating the Vols’ performance due to UTC being a FCS team.
That’s fair, but realize UTC was the 8th ranked FCS team at the time. The 2nd ranked FCS team, North Dakota State, controlled the matchup in Boulder against Colorado until very late 4th quarter in a game they lost 31-26 which required game saving plays by future NFL draft picks. And the 17th ranked FCS team, Western Carolina, gave this week’s Tennessee opponent, NC State, all they could handle before fading late in a 38-21 loss.
Tennessee landed a staggering 24-0 first quarter against UTC and never looked back in a lopsided 69-3 win. This was a game that saw 94 Vols see action. That number included 19 true freshmen and 37 players seeing their first action as a Vol.
Among the true freshmen were 5-star recruit Jordan Ross who blocked a punt, then proceeded to scoop and score a 13-yard touchdown. Instate recruit sensation Boo Carter caused two QB hurries and made two tackles. QB Jake Merklinger was solid in his first action going 4-4 passing with a long of 13 yards.
The clear leader among freshman players, redshirt freshman in this case, in anticipation among Tennessee fans was quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Nico was making his first QB start in front of a Neyland Stadium home crowd and he certainly did not disappoint. He started the game 10-10 passing, progressed to 15-16 before ending the first half and his game action with a 22-28, 3 TD’s and 314 passing yards day. The first half yardage set a new Tennessee program record for passing yards in a half.
Oh, and how did you enjoy seeing the Tennessee passing game using the middle third of the field again? Being able to effectively throw between the hashes again is a really big deal for Tennessee’s offense particularly with an extremely talented group of receivers.
Nico’s performance has drawn accolades from college football analysts across the country. The one that has stood out to me was from former SEC quarterback and career leader in touchdowns, Aaron Murray, who made the following observation on Nico’s GameDay 1 performance;
“I hate when people use the excuse of the opponent. You can tell when a guy has ‘it.’ Nico’s timing, anticipation and athleticism will translate to any game he will have to play this season.”
Forget that it was a FCS opponent. Nico as well as the team demonstrated they have the skills and talent to have a very successful 2024 season. How successful? Hopefully a College Football Playoff successful kind of season.
As noted in last week’s column, GameDay 1 was a big day for my 4-year old grandson Cohen. He met Coach Heupel and the team Friday night at the team hotel. He was able to get several player autographs on his Tennessee football and a lot of keeper photographs and videos. He then attended his first Tennessee football game on Saturday between the same two teams that his Papa Mac had attended in his first game at Neyland Stadium way back in 1966.
Except for the steam bath weather, it was a perfect GameDay weekend and the first of what hopefully will be many, many fun Neyland Stadium GameDays for Cohen.
