Tennessee QB All-Star Player Poses For His Defense Against Opponents Defensive Coordinator…
The fact that defensive coordinator Phil Parker has gotten everyone on the same page is largely to blame for the Iowa Hawkeyes’ defense, which is ranked among the top five in college football. They have excellent first- and second-level communication, and Iowa is constantly conscious of the difficulties that lie ahead.
They do, however, have somewhat less footage than usual for their impending matchup. Joe Milton III, the quarterback for the Tennessee Vols, started all twelve games this season but declined to play in the Citrus Bowl in order to start getting ready for the 2024 NFL Draft. In his place, true freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava will start, and Parker had some observations about the former blue-chip prospect.
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The Citrus Bowl match between Tennessee and Iowa is in a few days.
In what should be an intriguing matchup between the Big Ten and the SEC, as well as two programs with dissimilar playing styles, Iowa and Tennessee will square off.
The game at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, will air on ABC on January 1, 2024, at noon central time.
The day after the Vols arrived in Orlando, news broke that rookie Nico Iamaleava would start in place of starter Joe Milton III, who is opting out to prepare for the Senior Bowl and the 2024 NFL Draft, significantly altered Tennessee’s perspective on the game. Tennessee fans have long anticipated the day when Iamaleava, a former five-star prospect who was rated by 247Sports as the nation’s second-best player behind Arch Manning, would take over. This season, he essentially redshirted and played just four games as Milton’s backup.
He is the future for Tennessee and the future is here, so the Vols are looking at this game as the start of 2024 in a lot of regards.
There’s a lot we don’t know about Iamaleava at this level and as the starter, but he is supremely gifted and he’s just really smooth in everything he does – whether he’s avoiding pressure or throwing on the run, he makes it all look effortless. He is a lanky 6-foot-6 and (listed) 206 pounds and has a live arm and natural mobility to move around the pocket to get away from pressure, extend plays outside of the pocket and scramble if nothing is open. Iamaleava has a live arm and quick release with good accuracy, but he didn’t really take any downfield shots in his mop-up snaps.
For the majority of the month, Tennessee has been getting ready for him to start this game, so they have had time to get him used to playing with the starters and familiar with the strategy. Tennessee is what it is—a fast-paced, spread-out offense that spreads the field sideline to sideline, creates matchups and numerical advantages—so I doubt Josh Heupel and the staff will make many adjustments for Nico. I think he’ll have some really impressive plays as well as plays where he looks like a freshman. The Vols have a lot of faith in him, and the team is excited to play with him.
Tennessee had the second-best rushing offense in the SEC during the regular season, but the Vols are playing this game without two of their top three running backs. Jaylen Wright, Tennessee’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2015, opted out to declare for the 2024 NFL Draft after his junior season, and senior Jabari Small did the same. Small is a solid, dependable veteran who runs hard, but Wright is a home-run hitter with elite speed who led SEC running backs in yards per carry this season.
So exciting sophomore Dylan Sampson will take over the RB1 role and behind him will be two freshmen in Cameron Seldon and Khalifa Keith.
Sampson is from Louisiana and wears No. 6 and there’s a little Alvin Kamara in his game in how he’s able to break tackles where you’re not sure how he did it. He’s shifty, has breakaway speed and is versatile enough to catch the football out of the backfield. Tennessee went to him in the fourth quarter of the win at Kentucky and he produced 90 yards from scrimmage on 15 touches to help seal that game, and he should get a big workload in this game.
Tennessee is really excited about Seldon, a former Top247 prospect from Virginia, but like Iamaleava he is inexperienced. He played extensively on special teams, but got just 12 carries in mop-up duty. He’s a bigger body than Sampson at 6-foot-2 and 222 pounds, so it’ll be interesting to see how he performs.
After the regular season concluded, Tennessee had 10 scholarship players go through the NCAA transfer portal. Of those, seven were defensive backs, with starting defensive end Tyler Baron (six sacks in 2023) being the most notable departure. Among them were starters Wesley Walker, the starting safety who was ruled out of this game due to injury, and cornerback Doneiko Slaughter and star/nickel Tamarion McDonald. Four of Tennessee’s top six cornerbacks (based on snaps) are not in the game when you include Kamal Hadden, who sustained a season-ending injury against Alabama in October, and reserve cornerbacks Warren Burrell and Brandon Turnage, who are also in the portal.
Walker’s final two regular season games were started by second-year transfer Andre Turrentine from Ohio State. The Vols will start Gabe Jeudy-Lally at cornerback and safety Jaylen McCollough at safety. Freshman Rickey Gibson III at cornerback and sophomore Jourdan Thomas at star will be the other two starters. There is a lack of depth at cornerback with only two starters, a sophomore who redshirted, and two freshmen who mostly played on special teams.
Iowa should definitely try to capitalize on this new look secondary and test it, but can the Hawkeyes really do that? Tennessee, which ranked second in the SEC in run defense, will undoubtedly make an effort to force passing downs and keep Iowa behind the sticks. The Vols’ best defensive plays come from stopping the run and pressing the quarterback.