2025 Heisman Trophy odds set for Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava is tied with four other players for the second-lowest odds to win the 2025 Heisman Trophy, according to odds released recently by FanDuel.
Iamaleava has +1200 odds to win the Heisman, given annually to the top player college football, alongside Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, Penn State quarterback Drew Allar and Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning and LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier are tied as the early Heisman favorites at +850.
Nico Iamaleava had 151 total yards, two touchdowns in playoff loss at Ohio State
Iamaleava as a redshirt freshman led Tennessee to a 10-3 season and an appearance in the new 12-team College Football Playoff. The Vols lost 42-17 at Ohio State in the first round of the playoff at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on December 21.
“I think just use it as motivation,” Iamaleava said during his postgame press conference after the playoff loss. “We’ve been putting in work since January to get to this point, and it sucks to go out that way because that’s not who we are.”
At Ohio State Iamaleava completed 14 of 31 passes for 104 yards and ran for 47 yards with a season-high two rushing touchdowns.
“I love this team,” Iamaleava said in Columbus. “I love the team we have. Just the way (the Ohio State game) went was not the way we wanted it to go, and we’ll use that as fuel and motivation during this offseason to really hit it.”
Iamaleava led the Vols to home wins over Florida and Alabama and a road win at Oklahoma on the way to an 8-1 start to the season.
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He finished his first season as Tennessee’s starting quarterback with 2,616 yards passing and 19 touchdown passes, against five interceptions. He had a passer rating of 145.34 after completing 213 of 314 passes (63.7%), averaging 201.2 yards per game.
He ran 109 times for 364 yards, averaging 3.3 yards per rush and 28.0 yards per game, and had three rushing touchdowns. He ran for a season-high 65 yards against and had one rushing touchdown against N.C. State. He ran for 44 yards in the win over Alabama and 42 at Vanderbilt.
Nico Iamaleava had 4 passing touchdowns vs. Vanderbilt, UTEP
Iamaleava passed for 314 yards and three touchdowns in the first half of the season-opening win over Chattanooga at Neyland Stadium on August 31, but it would be his only game with 300 or more yards passing.
He had five games with 200 or more yards passing. He threw for 292 against Kentucky, 257 against Vanderbilt, 211 against North Carolina State and 209 against UTEP.
Iamaleava had three or more passing touchdowns in three games, with a season-high four both at Vanderbilt and at home against UTEP and three in the first half against Chattanooga.
“There were a lot of moving parts within our personnel around him,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after the loss at Ohio State, “and when you’re playing that position you need to have the guys around you playing at a high level, too.”
