Tennessee Volunteers Football - A FORCE in '24 with Josh Heupel? | Nico Iamaleava, James Pearce Jr.

all right let us go up to Knoxville Tennessee very intriguing team and this is one where I I Tennessee is one of these old Miss is one of these Cody I I explain to people as divisions go away in these various leagues like in the Big 10 and the SEC they're going away this year schedule draw means a lot absolutely Tennesse scheduled draw is not Georgia's scheduled draw it is not Florida's schedule draw it is much closer to Old Miss schedule draw and therefore I am making Tennessee ceiling a playoff birth yes and you know and you know what helps a playoff run having a generational quarterback niik Amala has the chance to bring Tennessee back into the playoff conversation and light up the scoreboard like we saw when hinen hooker was taking Snaps for the vves he was the number one player in the country for on three for a reason he has a lead arm Talent he's a Dynamic Athlete he's got all the tools that Josh Hy's looking for at the quarterback position plus they were able to give him some help via the portal you know bringing in starting left tackle Lance herd from LSU a dynamic wi out and Chris brazelle from tulan he was one of the most sought after receivers in the country and they gave him a nice little safety net the tight end position and holding stays from Notre Dame I think this offense at Tennessee is going to look a lot more similar to the one that we're used to seeing from Josh hypo and I think that starts with niiko Amala yes he's a baby he's going to have some Growing Pains but if there is anyone that was built for it and if there's anyone that could help cater him to making less mistakes it's Josh hyp in this Tennessee offense and and here's the thing that they're going to have this year that well a couple things they're going to have this year they didn't have last year with Joe Milton improvisational ability there was none of that with Jo Milton it it was you called it and he's going to run it and that's how it's going to go Nico much more like Henn and hooker when things are breaking down around him he can figure some stuff out right also true RPO read option yes Joe Milton did not love the idea of the read option did not love having and this is like when you talk to quarterbacks who run this when you talk to running backs who who run in these schemes it's instinctual especially on the quarterback side and you can teach it but a lot of it is they have it or they don't like Conor Shots Out was probably the best read option instincts of anybody I've ever seen like he didn't pull the ball unless he was going to gain n yards and right Nico has good instincts which allows you to do a lot more allows you to really handicap the defense a little bit because that guy's got to make a decision you know that guy being red has to make a decision and if he legitimately has to make a decision you don't have to block him right right that means you block somebody else and I think you know we talk about this offense in Tennessee and that's obviously going to be a huge piece of the puzzle for them moving forward this season but we haven't even mentioned the best player on this team let alone best player in the country in James Pierce getting after the quarterback you know they lose a key piece on the other side of that in Tyler Baron you know they lose a couple other guys in tamaran McDonald but they picked up Jamon McCoy from from Oregon State who I think is a plug-and-play starter at Corner this defense just needs to get Nico back on the field this also ke Keenan peely at Mike linebacker who was supposed to be there starting Mike linebacker last year got hurt in Camp he's a BYU transfer he's he's like 37 years old uh no but he's a grown man right but that's the whole deal right for this defense the goal is to just bend but don't break get that offense back on the field Calla some turnovers give the offense some short Fields because if you do that there's no there's no other option but for Tennesseee to score and so I think Tennessee might have themselves in a few shootouts this year but they have the offense to make that happen and win those types of games plus like you mentioned the schedule sets up very nicely for them I think best case for this Tennessee team I think it's probably 11 and one absolute best case so you're either losing at Georgia or losing to Alabama and you're beating everybody else think maybe more realistically it's 10 and two maybe they lose to Georgia maybe they lose to b or they lose to Georgia lose to Oklahoma but either way you slice it this is a team that's absolutely sniffing an SEC Championship in a playoff birth yeah it's it's a reason to get excited and for sure their floor you know I I I think it's probably eight and four I I agree I just think Josh hyp brings so much continuity to this offense yes it's yes he's getting his feet wet as a starter but Josh hypo and especially with that communication that they're able to have in this offense and his ability to improvise and make things happen and just let him be himself I don't see them making a ton of mistakes offensively even even for a Young quarterback no I I I think they're going to be they're GNA be very interesting to watch and and Nico is going to change the Dynamics of that offense so much totally they they don't have a game like Missouri last year I think that's that's what they avoid that that that's probably not going to happen uh and you look at the schedule like who would do that to them you know maybe in Oklahoma could do that to them in Norman but it won't happen this year because they're just not going to be that type of team that can't score like they won't have those games thank you so much for watching just a reminder subscribe to this channel right here so you never miss an episode of Andy Staples on three and oh by the way watch all the other great videos on the on three Sports YouTube channel