What Nico Iamaleava said after No. 4 Tennessee's loss Saturday night at Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Nico Iamaleava completed 16 of 28 passes for 154 yards and ran 11 times for 17 yards as No. 4 Tennessee’s offense crashed in the 19-14 loss Saturday night at Arkansas.
The game ended when Iamaleava was flushed out of the pocket and ran out of bounds as time expired with the Vols (4-1, 1-1 SEC) facing a fourth-and-5 at the Arkansas 20-yard line with six seconds left.
The redshirt freshman was sacked four times and hurried three times as Tennessee’s offense continued to stall.
The Vols were shut out in the first half after gaining just 76 total yards. Tennessee scored on the first two drives of the second half, covering a combined 135 yards and capped by two Dylan Sampson touchdown runs. But the two scores were followed by four straight punts and the failed fourth down as time expired.
His everything Iamaleava said during his press conference after the loss:
The Arkansas defense giving Tennessee multiple looks
“A lot of different looks, man. That’s what we get every week. We’ve got to do a better job at adjusting to that. They went a lot of four-down, different three-down. We’ve got to do a better job of adjusting to it.”
Tennessee’s offensive issues in the first half
“We’ve got to play cleaner, man. We started too many drives off with penalties, false starts, holding calls. Any big play we had, it was a penalty, so we’ve got to do a better job of playing clean, man, especially in away environments. We’ve got to come here and play cleaner.”
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What happened on Tennessee’s final play
“As I rolled out, man, I seen Tae (Dont’e Thornton Jr.), he was coming open. But if I threw that ball, it was going to be batted down right away, so I tried to let Chris Brazzell work a little bit. And he was covered at the time, and as soon as I was trying to let the ball go, I felt it slipping in my hand. I’ve got to do a better job at holding the ball.”
Tennessee’s offensive line sacks and penalties
“Yeah, man, we’ve just got to be better, man. A lot of stuff that, that’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job at getting our guys in the right protection. And, yeah, man, we’ll be better. We’ll use this as fuel and get us better for the rest of the season.”
If Tennessee’s offensive line allowing sacks gets to him mentally
“No, sir. Whenever a sack happens, I trust my guys to block up. None of those sacks affect me, man. My mentality is the next play.”
The talk in the locker room about the rest of the season, what’s left to play for in the 12-team College Football Playoff format
“Yeah, man. Heup said it. We’ve still got everything ahead of us, still got all our goals ahead of us. We’ve got to use this as fuel to get us better for the rest of the season.”
