Josh Heupel details how bowl experience helped prepare Nico Iamaleava to be Tennessee's QB1

As Joe Milton worked out for NFL scouts at Tennessee’s Pro Day on Wednesday, it signaled the full-on arrival of the Nico Iamaleava era under center in Knoxville. But the young quarterback has gotten a head start on the matter.

With Milton opting out of the bowl game for the Volunteers, Iamaleava got to start against a stout Iowa defense. And head coach Josh Heupel was impressed not only with his performance, but how Iamaleava handled preparation in the lead up to the game.

“I think it’s a great kickoff for any of the young guys, but certain a young quarterback,” Heupel said on SEC Network on Wednesday at Tennessee’s Pro Day. “The urgency in your preparation. And he was really good in the backup role throughout the course of the season. But those two weeks where he knew he was going to be the guy, him preparing like a starter, having to feel that going into the game, knowing it’s your game. Played really well.”

Iamaleava didn’t put up a lights-out passing performance in the bowl, going 12-for-19 for 151 yards and a touchdown, but flashed his upside with his arm and shined with his legs, particularly in the red zone. Iamaleava finished with just 27 net rushing yards — sacks are counted against the total — but scored a trio of rushing touchdowns.

That included a 19-yard rushing touchdown on the first play of the second quarter to break what was then a scoreless tie, as Iamaleava kept the ball up the middle and pulled away from a thicket of defenders into the end zone.

And beyond his performance on the field and in the lead up to the bowl, Heupel has seen it catapult the young quarterback into the offseason.

“There’s a lot of things that he learned from that experience,” Heupel said. “I think it accelerates the urgency in the preparation in the offseason, too. Since he got back in January with everybody else, he’s been the consummate pro. Inside of the building, he’s been in here all day, everyday. And he’s been really good through the first six practices.”

Plus, there’s one other knock-on effect from Iamaleava’s bowl experience. The quarterback has apparently gone hard in the weight room and bulked up through the winter.

“He has — you feel some of those hits in the bowl game and you realize, ‘I better put some body armor on,'” Heupel said.