Peter Burns on Nico Iamaleava: 'He's going to be so damn good'

Peter Burns had the sideline view of it. The SEC Network anchor hosted a field-level pregame show Saturday afternoon, before Tennessee’s season-opener against Chattanooga, then watched the game up close.

He was looking for a few different things. And the Vols checked all the boxes. 

“The things I needed to see,” Burns said Sunday night during an appearance on Volquest’s Rocky Top Rewind, “I needed to see Nico (Iamaleava) throw the ball, something we didn’t get to see a whole lot in the bowl game. He did that and it was frozen ropes. He was in command the entire time. 

“I wanted to see the offensive line look really good. And really it’s almost how you see when a player comes off the field … the body language of how a team responds to him.”

Tennessee responded to Iamaleava on and off the field, beating Chattanooga 69-3 while the redshirt freshman threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns while only playing in the first half. 

‘The moment never seemed too big for him’

“I felt, hey, even though you got a kid, he was there on the team last year, everybody looked to him as that quiet leader, like what are we doing?” Burns said. “The moment never seemed too big for him.

“And I’ve seen that with five-star recruits, right? That all of a sudden we hype these guys, they’ve got a cannon of an arm, but when they start playing you’re like, alight, maybe it’s a little different.”

Iamaleava was a five-star prospect and the No. 1 overall recruit in the country in the On3 Ratings in Tennessee. He sat last season while backing up Joe Milton III, appearing in five games and making his first career start in the 35-0 win over Iowa in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day.

Iamaleava threw for the 314 yards on 22 of 28 passing, setting a new Tennessee record for passing yards in a half and leading the Vols to a 45-0 lead at the break. He completed his first 10 passes and 15 of his first 16 before throwing his second incompletion.

“It sucks because I sit there and I go I don’t want to blow up this kid too much,” Burns said, “and yet I see it with my own eyes and I’m like, ‘He’s going to be so damn good.’ Especially in (Josh) Heupel’s offense.”

Burns acknowledged the obvious. Tennessee was playing an FCS opponent in a buy game to open the season. 

“What you have to do is you have to take everything with a grain of salt,” he said. “If it’s good, you’re going to go ok, ‘What was the competition you had?’ You look at next week when you’re facing N.C. State, obviously that’s going to be a step up in weight class than what the Mocs are bringing over on Saturday.”

Up Next: Tennessee vs. N.C. State, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC

But N.C. State had to score 21 points in the fourth quarter Thursday night to beat Western Carolina, another FCS opponent, 38-21 after trailing 21-17 in the third quarter. 

“I go back and look at times over the last couple years where I’ve seen an Auburn lose to a New Mexico State or I’ve seen some of these teams that just look flat,” Burns said. “Go look at South Carolina trying to replace Spencer Rattler, what happened, they struggled with LaNorris Sellers against Old Dominion.”

He didn’t see a struggle for Iamaleava on Saturday and doesn’t expect to see one going forward. Not after that kind of first impression.

“Nico and the way this offense looked,” Burns said, “makes me really think about hey, could this be a College Football Playoff team if you’re healthy?”