Nico Iamaleava overcame a shaky start for one of the best performances of his career as No. 11 Tennessee pulled away for a 56-0 win over UTEP on Saturday.
Iamaleava, a redshirt freshman, needed a strong outing after the Vols (9-2) lost to Georgia a week earlier. And he delivered against an overmatched UTEP (2-9) team.
Tennessee plays Vanderbilt on Saturday (noon ET, ABC) at First Bank Stadium in Nashville.
Here's a quick rundown of Iamaleava's performance against UTEP.
Iamaleava was 17-of-23 passing for 209 yards and a career-high four touchdowns. He also rushed for 36 yards.
Through 11 games in the 2024 season, Iamaleava has completed 65% of his passes for 2,255 yards, 15 TDs and four interceptions.
After some early misfires, Iamaleava completed 15 of 17 passes for 195 yards and four TDs during a stretch from the second to third quarter.
Iamaleava tossed a 9-yard TD pass to Squirrel White on a receiver screen, a 1-yard TD pass on a quick rollout, an 18-yard TD pass to Bru McCoy on fade route and another 7-yard TD pass to McCoy.
It was shaky start for Iamaleava. Fortunately for the Vols, that slump was short-lived.
He was off target on his first pass of the game, and UTEP nearly intercepted it. Then he overthrew McCoy on a deep pass that should've gone for a touchdown and fumbled a snap.
The good news: Iamaleava was accurate and in control for an extended stretch. And Vols fed off his strong play en route to seven scoring drives.
The bad news: Much of Iamaleava's success came on short and intermediate passes. And his slow start would've been a problem against a better team like Vanderbilt.
But give Iamaleava a lot of credit for overcoming his early miscues to rally. He regained his confidence. But more importantly, his hot streak after a cold start earned respect from his teammates.
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
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