Tennessee freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava will make his first career start versus Iowa in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day (1 p.m. EST, ABC).
The 6-foot-6, 206-pound freshman signal-caller appeared in four games for Tennessee during the 2023 regular-season.
Iamaleava completed 16-of-26 passing attempts for 163 yards and one touchdown. He recorded 44 rushing yards on five attempts.
Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker met with media on Friday. He discussed the Hawkeyes facing Iamaleava and the Vols’ offense.
“I don’t think the offense is going to change,” Parker said. “It’s been very similar to what he’s done in the past, but I think we have about 54 snaps on him. They are running the same offense, but he is a little bit different in style. Probably runs maybe a little bit better. I’m sure they have got some other things up their sleeve of what they want to do with them, but it’s going to be a challenge for us and we are going to be have to to be able to match their talent outside with the wide receivers they have and the ability to stop the run.
“I think that’s the most important thing that we have to do in any game. You have to make sure you stop the run and try to make them pass it, which, you know, they have a lot of explosive plays and one of our goals is making sure that we don’t give up explosive plays, so it’s definitely a challenge in that way.”
