Nico Iamaleava is on the way – but Tennessee’s D-Line already looks CFP-worthy

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The orange blurs came fast, way too fast, swirling around NC State quarterback Grayson McCall and the rapidly dissolving zone that was supposed to protect him. (“Should” is the operative word here.) At least McCall was trying to get out of the chaos, desperately searching for an exit like a toddler lost in a hall of mirrors.

But then, like a disoriented child, came the inevitable bang. In this case, it was Tennessee defensive end Dominic Bailey who collided with McCall, throwing the 6-foot-3, 220-pound passer like a rag doll onto the Bank of America turf. The football came loose, and Bailey had the quick intuition to jump on it.

A strip sack and a fumble recovery in one, nicely packaged with a bow.

Just a hunch? This won’t be the last play of this kind for the Vols this season.

Because in No. 14 Tennessee’s 51-10 victory over No. 24 NC State — and that’s not a typo — the Vols’ defense, and especially their defensive line, looked every bit as good as their glossy offseason advertisement. That unit made the Wolfpack, an underdog for the College Football Playoff, look completely inept. And Dave Doeren’s team isn’t lacking in offensive talent; it has a three-time Sun Belt Player of the Year at quarterback, an All-ACC honoree at running back (Jordan Waters), a freshman All-American and the ACC’s reigning Rookie of the Year at receiver (Kevin Concepcion), and four returning starters on the offensive line.

And yet none of it mattered, not even a little bit. Tennessee’s defense held the Wolfpack without an offensive touchdown and to a measly 143 yards, including an abysmal 2.9 yards per play. NC State’s 28 carries yielded a whopping 39 yards — including a 15-yard run by Hollywood Smothers, whose last name aptly describes what the Vols did to NC State’s running game. (Poor Waters, whose seven carries yielded… minus 4 yards.)

The stats – brilliant for UT, nightmarish for NC State – continue. Adding Bailey’s third-quarter takedown, the Vols had three sacks, 13 (!!) tackles for loss and forced three turnovers for 17 points. Fortunately, Doeren took McCall – who completed 15 of 24 passes for just 104 yards and one pick – off the field midway through the fourth quarter, by which point the over (59.5) had already been reached, even though NC State only scored three offensive points all night.

“It was definitely not what I expected,” Doeren said. “It just felt like we were in a downward spiral and could never come back.”

For the first time since 2022, Grayson McCall played an entire game without throwing a touchdown pass. (Jim Dedmon / USA Today)

So a game that had been billed as a battle of the quarterbacks – McCall against Nico Iamaleava, the redshirt freshman from Tennessee and the Vols’ most eagerly awaited passer since Peyton Manning – turned into a showcase for the Vols’ dominant D-line.

And you know what? For Tennessee fans, that might be just fine.

That’s largely because Iamaleava, facing his toughest test yet, still passed. Maybe not the stellar A+plus he earned in a half against Chattanooga last week, but still a solid B-minus. In just over three quarters of work, he completed 16 of 23 passes for 212 passing yards and two touchdowns, plus another 65 yards and a touchdown on the ground … but he also had his first two career interceptions, including an 87-yard pick-six when he was hit while throwing. Iamaleava deserves a free throw for that — and because Tennessee was already leading 37-3 at the time. But as for the other thing, a missed shot thrown too far in triple (or possibly quadruple) coverage? He’ll have to own that, which he did.

“On that first mistake, I tried to force it out,” Iamaleava said. “For too long – you know, I could have dropped it or run it or struggled or made a play.”

Overall, Iamaleava’s performance outweighed his two mistakes. He was better than “OK,” or as he described himself in his third career start. And if he had actually converted one of his other three possible touchdowns – a 61-yard pass to tight end Miles Kitselman that was taken back for a penalty and two more sideline throws that fell just incomplete in the end zone – he would have even more highlights for a potential Heisman campaign.

Tennessee has to be happy with Iamaleava’s performance: very good, but still a few notches away from great.

But that’s where this defensive line comes in. It gives Iamaleava time to develop into the superstar many in the industry believe he’s on his way to becoming – and after countless offseason sessions against this relentless front, he knows it as well as anyone.

“This D-line,” Iamaleava said with a grin, “is mean.”

It was clear early on that NC State was in for a rough night in the trenches. Waters, who ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns in NC State’s season-opening win over Western Carolina, was minus-6 on the Wolfpack’s opening drive and was immediately tackled in the backfield on every handoff. And while Smothers found a little more room to run in the second quarter – including three consecutive 31-yard runs that brought the Wolfpack to the Tennessee 16 – McCall was under constant pressure. Immediately after those three successful runs, Edge Joshua Josephs burst through NC State’s offensive line and threw his hand in McCall’s face as he threw; that was enough disruption for McCall to overthrow his pass – which landed right in the hand of safety Will Brooks, who promptly carried it back for an 85-yard pick-six.

Tennessee 17, NC State 3.

The momentum is gone. The pressure is unleashed.

Ball game? Practically over.

“They’re good, right? They’re fast and have size up front. It’s an SEC football team,” McCall said. “We expected that.”

But expecting something and dealing with it are two very different things — and NC State clearly couldn’t handle the chaos the Vols created. The question is: who can? Tennessee hasn’t allowed its opponent to get into the end zone for two weeks in a row now. That will undoubtedly change soon — maybe not next week against Kent State, but probably after that at Oklahoma — but it’s still notable.

When asked if this was the best defensive performance he was involved in at Tennessee, Omari Thomas, a 48-game starter and defensive tackle, answered bluntly: “Probably.”

With Iamaleava, Tennessee’s running game — which posted 249 rushing yards and three touchdowns at 5.7 yards per carry — and that defensive line, the Vols appear to have all the necessary ingredients to make the College Football Playoff. And again, that’s based on Iamaleava in his current state, after three starts in his college career, not the experience he should have after a full SEC challenge. Considering the folks at Tennessee’s facility and those who came through Knoxville already believe Iamaleava has first-round potential, it will be exciting to see what heights he can reach.

And let’s be realistic: You have to have a really top-notch quarterback game to not only make it to the CFP, but also to do damage there. Iamaleava has shown glimpses of that, but that’s just a small sample size.

In the meantime, he’s throwing his first few interceptions, heading into a rough away atmosphere and facing defenses on par with his own team’s — “going against them every day kind of sucks,” Kitselman admitted — and the Vols’ starting seven should give the redshirt freshman enough room for error to keep the orange-checkered train on the tracks.

“If they keep playing like that,” said running back Dylan Sampson, “and we keep getting everything right, the sky’s the limit.”

(Top photo: Jim Dedmon / USA Today)