Josh Heupel raves about preparation, performance of walk-on QB Gaston Moore

Tennessee caught a lot of people by surprise in the second half of Saturday night’s game against Mississippi State when it trotted out walk-on quarterback Gaston Moore.

Starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava had suffered an injury in the first half — we now know he’s going through concussion protocol — turning the ball over to the walk-on backup.

“Good to see him go operate the way that we know he can,” coach Josh Heupel said. “He’s a smart decision-maker. Aggressive when it was time. Controlled everything from clock, playcalls, checks. Did a really good job.”

Gaston Moore wasn’t asked to do too much. Tennessee had a 13-point lead coming out of the half, so Heupel leaned on a healthy dose of the ground game.

Still, Moore went 5-of-8 passing for 38 yards. He played turnover free football, with the Volunteers recovering a fumble he had in the second half.

More than anything, Heupel was pleased with how the team responded to Gaston Moore.

“When the guys found out he was going in, like they were excited for him and they believe in him,” Heupel said. “So they went out and played the way they needed to to make his job easier for him too.”

The latest on Nico Iamaleava

While Tennessee was pleased with the job Gaston Moore did in relief, they’ll certainly be hoping Iamaleava is healthy and available for this weekend’s contest at No. 12 Georgia.

Heupel provided a very brief, not overly descriptive update on Iamaleava on Wednesday during an SEC teleconference call.

“Nico has been good here in the early part of the week,” Heupel said. “And at this point in the week I’ll refer everybody to the availability report that comes out later tonight. Everybody can wait with anticipation for that.”

The SEC requires teams to put out a mandatory injury report beginning on Wednesday of each game week. So tonight we’ll learn a good deal more about whether Iamaleava’s status — and Gaston Moore’s chances to play — remains up in the air.