Josh Heupel has no concerns about Nico Iamaleava pressing after recent games from Tennessee offense

After the Tennessee Volunteers offense struggled, particularly early in the game against the Florida Gators, head coach Josh Heupel shared he has no concerns about the offense or quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

As Heupel explained, he works with players to not worry about past mistakes or struggles. So, confidence shouldn’t be an issue for Iamaleava or anyone else on the team.

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“I think, for every player, not just the quarterback, you’ve heard me say this,” Josh Heupel said. “You’ve got to play the next play independently. The next week independently too.”

In the last three weeks against SEC opponents, Tennessee has been averaging 20.6 points per game. In those games, the Volunteers are 2-1, but they’d like to have the offensive performance improve once again. That comes after the Volunteers averaged 63.3 points per game in their three non-conference games. So, while there was a jump up in the level of competition moving into SEC play, there has been a dramatic step back in production from the offense.

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Individually, during that time, Nico Iamaleava has completed 39 of 60 passes for 578 yards, or 192.6 yards per game, and has thrown four touchdowns. He also has thrown two interceptions, both of which came in the win over Florida.

“We started extremely fast. We have the turnover, get behind the chains a couple times there in the first quarter, early second quarter with penalties, some self-inflicted wounds. Things that we can control and be smarter in. I thought for a second maybe it was just offensively we weren’t playing with the same aggressiveness that we came out early in the football game with. For us, settling in, we got a bunch of guys that have played at a high level and have made plays,” Heupel said.

“And Nico’s played well. He hasn’t played his best football the last couple of weeks. Let’s go prepare and practice and go play the next game, the next play with an aggressive mentality. And there’s a lot of things that he did well in the football game too, so just got to continue to grow.”

Next for Tennessee is the Third Saturday in October. With that, the Volunteers are preparing for a showdown with the Alabama Crimson Tide. It’s a game that Paul Finebaum has said will effectively be a College Football Playoff elimination game thanks to the fact that each team already has a loss this season. With that, Josh Heupel would love to find a way to get his offense clicking the way it’s supposed to again.