Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava hasn’t let hype, pressure get to him

Nico Iamaleava, wearing his trademark glasses and an easy smile, sat in the Peyton Manning Room last week at Tennessee’s Anderson Training Center.

All around the Volunteers redshirt freshman quarterback were pictures, mementos and reminders of the best — and most celebrated — quarterback ever to play at Tennessee.

“He texts me before every game and then texts me after every game, whether it’s a good game or bad game,” Iamaleava said of Manning. “It’s not that he’s giving me tips so much, but more, ‘Great job. Keep working. I’m here whenever you need me.'”

When Iamaleava interacts with Manning outside the season, it tends to be a bit different.

“He might send me a YouTube clip of an NFL game and how he breaks it down and what I see,” Iamaleava said. “If you ask him something, he’s got the answer.

“With Peyton, it’s always the little things.”

Not since Manning three decades ago has a football player walked onto Tennessee’s campus with expectations as lofty as those Iamaleava carried with him when he made the trek from Long Beach, California, to Rocky Top last year as a true freshman. That’s fitting because Tennessee will play in its biggest game in decades Saturday night (8 ET, ABC/ESPN+) when it travels to Ohio State for the first round of the College Football Playoff.

“The first time I met Nico in person, I knew he had the right stuff,” said Tennessee senior Cooper Mays, an All-SEC center. “There wasn’t any entitlement, none of that. He wanted to earn everything, wanted to grow as a player, and you’ve seen him do that. I think this is probably the best it’s been yet, his comfort level and his command, and I think the big thing for us is we’ve been better at protecting him.

“He has that experience now and is just able to play ball, and that’s going to exponentially increase how comfortable you are.”