Nico Iamaleava injury update: Promising news emerges on Tennessee QB ahead of Georgia game

There’s still no official word on if Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava will be able to play against Georgia on Saturday. However, Iamaleava is at least traveling to Athens with the Vols, which seems to be a good sign.

Rick Russo of WVLT posted a video of the Tennessee football team loading the buses to head to Athens. In the video, Nico Iamaleava can be seen with his bags getting ready to leave for the road game.

You can check out the video of Nico Iamaleava below:

The Vols are on their way to Georgia and that includes QB Nico Iamaleava who boarded the buses with the team on the UT Campus this afternoon #GBO @wvlt @WVLTSports @Vol_Football pic.twitter.com/25iWrvHl58

— Rick Russo (@wvltrick) November 15, 2024

The Tennessee starting quarterback has been in concussion protocol since leaving the Volunteers’ game against Mississippi State early.

On the Thursday injury report, Nico Iamaleava was listed as questionable.

During the SEC teleconference on Wednesday, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was asked about his starting quarterback. Ultimately, he was coy, but he did share some news about Nico Iamaleava.

“Nico has been good here in the early part of the week,” Josh 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.”

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said Friday on The Pat McAfee Show that the Bulldogs are planning as if Iamaleava will play. If he is unable to go, the Bulldogs will adjust accordingly.

“You treat it like he’s going to play and you adjust if he doesn’t,” Smart said. “Offensively, there’s not a huge change for them when he’s not in. I do think he’s a great talent. I mean the ball comes out like a missile.

“I’ve never seen a ball – we call it a bazooka around here. It comes out and it’s really flat and fast. And the ball travels 53 yards really quickly. But he is talented. He’s got great arm talent. And he’s got great wideouts to throw it to.”

Smart also shared more details as far as what makes the Tennessee offense unique and difficult to defend.

“Well, it’s tough, because you have to change your defense to play against them,” Kirby Smart said. “There’s plays and defenses that we haven’t called all year that we have to play against them, because they’re very different. They’re fast. They have huge splits. And everybody knows that.

“So you get to watch other people play against them, and you’re trying to get ideas of how you want to play against them. But they go so fast that they limit what you can do.”