Josh Heupel has high expectations for Nico Iamaleava

Tennessee football's redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava has high expectations for his first season as the Tennessee starting quarterback. He started one game last season, winning 35-0 in the Citrus Bowl against Iowa. 

He has looked poised and confident in highlight clips posted throughout fall camp, which could set him up to be successful in his first season as the starting quarterback. Head coach Josh Heupel expects Nico to play at a high level despite only starting one game in his first year on campus. 

"He's a young player. He has one start underneath him,"  Heupel said. We expect him to play at a really high level right from the jump, but there's going to be a growth in maturation for him as a player inside of what we're doing as well."

To be successful in Heupel's offense, you need a quarterback who is efficient, poised, mentally smart, and tough. Heupel already believes Nico can be all of that in year one as a starter, which would be remarkable. Offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said Nico's mental growth has been remarkable. 

"Just watching that kid in the spring scrimmages after he'd been here for two months, and it's like, man, this guy just gets it on the football side of the ball," Halzle said. "Now, getting to take this whole offseason and really dive into the intricacies of understanding why are we calling certain things in certain situations? Why are we doing things a certain way? Why are we switching our protection? 

"He is blossoming in that. I think we are going to see his play go to an even higher level, which is a scary thing to think about because just his natural ability to step onto a football field and play well is elite. Now, he's got to go do it with live bullets for 17 straight games this year, but we're really excited about where he's at mentally in this process."

VolQuest's Austin Price also set the bar for fans regarding Nico's performance this season, building the hype train a little more. Price reported that Nico has looked really good throughout camp despite throwing an interception and has improved his eyes and playmaking abilities.

"Based off the people I've spoken to, yes, he's been really, really good," said Price. "A couple of days ago, he led them right down the field on a couple of 70-yard drives. Now, one time, he did throw the back shoulder ball that got picked off by Jermod McCoy, you saw it on Twitter. Tennessee tweeted it out, they just didn't tweet who was throwing it, but that was Nico.

"But he literally made three or four plays on that drive, I was told, that were -- they just weren't able to make those types of plays a year ago. And so there's a lot of excitement out there about his ability to make plays, his ability to improvise, his ability to keep his eyes down the field when things break down and make plays on the run. They love the way he's throwing the football."

Despite not having much experience at the college level against SEC defenses, Nico's expectations are high across the board. Fans are excited to see what he brings to Tennessee football, and the coaching staff has high expectations for the redshirt freshman, too. 

The 6-foot-6 quarterback can make plays with his arm and legs and showed against Iowa how to protect the football and not turn the ball over. Nico will make his debut as Tennessee's guy on August 31 in the season opener against Chattanooga.