Tennessee vols get another qaurterback called….
2023 five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava committed to the Tennessee Vols on Monday, giving UT head coach Josh Heupel a signature recruiting win.
Iamaleava committed to the Vols over Alabama, Georgia, Miami, Ole Miss, and Oregon.
Tennessee won this battle for a couple of reasons. For starters, UT’s coaches did a really good job of building a great relationship with Iamaleava.
Another reason the Vols won the recruiting battle was because of the Tennessee fan base. The Vol faithful showed a lot of love to Iamaleava — via social media before his commitment and during his recent visit to Knoxville.
Iamaleava has noted on several occasions that the love from Tennessee fans meant a lot to him and his family.
Another factor that went into the Vols winning this battle is that Alabama and Georgia have both been primarily recruiting 2023 five-star quarterback Arch Manning, the nephew of Tennessee legend Peyton Manning.
If Alabama and Georgia had Nico as their top priority, I think this recruiting battle is far from settled.
Heupel and the Vols chose not to pursue Manning and instead put all of their focus on landing Iamaleava.
And by doing so, they may have actually got the better player, even though Manning is ranked higher.
247Sports recruiting analyst Greg Biggins spoke to GoVols247 this week about Iamaleava and he pointed out that Tennessee’s newest commit might have the most upside of any quarterback in the 2023 recruiting class.
“For me, I think they’re getting a kid who probably has the most upside of any quarterback in this class,” said Biggins.
The recruiting analyst pointed out that Iamaleava hasn’t been able to focus solely on football due to also being a high-level volleyball player.