Nico Iamaleava discusses Tennessee overcoming slow offensive start in blowout of NC State

While the 51-10 final score line didn’t quite indicate it, Tennessee and NC State were locked in a close game through much of the first half. But once the fuse lit on the Tennessee offense, it was lights out for the Wolfpack.

And heralded sophomore Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava reflected on overcoming the slow, sloppy start. That included an interception early in the second quarter. But that — nor a pick six in the second half — slowed Iamaleava as he finished with more than 250 yards of total offense and three touchdowns.

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“I think that’s just something that’s stuck with me since I was young. My dad instilled that in to me, move on quick and yeah, we had a little bad play in, I think it was the second quarter, and I had to bounce back,” Iamaleava said on the ABC broadcast postgame.

Specifically, Iamaleava thought some of his problems arose when he was trying to be overly aggressive in situations where he had check downs or options to run the ball. And when he did tuck it and run on Saturday night, Iamaleava was highly effective.

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He carried eight times for 65 yards and one of his three touchdowns, also converting a handful of key third downs with his legs either on designed runs or scrambles.

“I think I was just taking what the defense was giving me,” Iamaleava said. “Like my first error, I tried to squeeze that instead of just taking off. And you know, when they drop eight, I had too many answers for me and I was just trying to force stuff. I think second half, I settled down pretty well.” 

And following the 51-point outing on Saturday, Tennessee has now put up 120 points in two games played. While a 60-point-per-game average won’t likely hold, Iamaleava thinks there’s still plenty of space for the Tennessee offense to continue to grow.

“We’ve gotta continue to get better this year,” Iamaleava said. “We know what our goal in mind is. So every day, we’re pushing for our goal.”