Joey Halzle discusses value of getting Nico Iamaleava on the field early

Tennessee managed to get heralded freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava into the season opener as it became a beatdown of Virginia. And offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle thinks there’s immense value in getting Iamaleava into real game situations when possible.

With Austin Peay headed to Knoxville, there’s a decent chance Iamaleava will get some more game reps. Halzle thinks the Governors will give him plenty of challenging looks, exactly the situations he wants to see the young quarterback navigate.

“And then going against these guys this week, you’re going to get a multitude of pressures and coverages and it’s going to be great for everyone to see that, because that’s a huge eye discipline game. Which, once again, for whether he’s an older backup or a young guy coming in for his first couple snaps, it’s a huge game for him to have to define his eyes,” Halzle said.

He thinks getting in the opener, in front of likely the largest crowd he’s played in front of to date, was a big milestone to hit for Iamaleava.

“One, just to take the field in front of that many people and calm your nerves down and trust your eyes and sometimes you call a play and you don’t even remember what the play is. It’s like, ‘Wait, what is that.’ So just getting that adrenaline spike and then calming yourself back down, that’s huge,” Halzle said.

And the more Iamaleava plays and gets game reps he went through to reference, the more he and starting quarterback Joe Milton can grow their dialogue about the offense further.

Halzle said the two are already constantly pushing each other, and the more they can bounce ideas and reactions and analysis of live reps off each other, the better.

“He was talking to him about what he sees, as soon as Joe comes out and Nico goes in, he’s not checked out just kind of doing whatever. He’s watching, talking to him about what he saw, coming off the field helping each other. And it’s what I said, the two of them are always together. Joe’s been a huge help to him, bringing him along to this point and I think that’s why you also see Nico do everything he can to help Joe when he’s the one out there on the field. Because it’s hard to see everything at that position,” Halzle said.