With Tennessee football adding quarterback Joey Aguilar by way of UCLA and Appalachian State this week, the Vols and the fall out of Nico Iamaleava’s departure continues to be a key talking point in the college football world.
Former Alabama defensive back and current 247sports college football analyst Gerald “Smoke” Dixon paints a negative picture for where Tennessee is headed after losing Iamaleava to the transfer portal.
“You’re running right back to where Jeremy Pruitt left you,” Dixon said. “You don’t have a quarterback that can get you to 10 wins. We’re talking about the team that just lost to the national champions in the playoffs. You’re going down a level, down a step in terms of quarterback play.
“Irregardless of what people think about Nico’s ability and how he played or how Tennessee’s offense was last year in terms of heavy run, 76th in passing offense, he still was a player who defensive coordinators had to stay up late at night just because if he was on, Tennessee was almost unbeatable because they played great defense as well.”
Dixon makes some good points about how Tennessee football’s offense will likely take a step back this season despite how inconsistent its offense was a season ago with Iamaleava. But Dixon seemingly misremembers how bad the Jeremy Pruitt era was in Knoxville.
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The Vols posted a 16-19 (10-15 SEC) in Pruitt’s three seasons as head coach. Tennessee twice missed a bowl game while winning the 2019 Gator Bowl and posting an 8-5 record in Pruitt’s second season. But Tennessee followed it up with a 3-7 record in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.
In Josh Heupel’s four seasons as head coach, Tennessee’s posted a 37-15 (20-12 SEC) and has twice won 10 games. The Vols worse season was Heupel’s first when they posted a 7-6 (4-4 SEC) record losing in the Music City Bowl.
While Tennessee could take a step back this season without Iamaleava, that would likely still look like Pruitt’s best season as the Vols’ head coach. The good news for Tennessee is that its schedule is still manageable. Its usual rivalry matchups against Florida, Alabama and Georgia will be tough but Tennessee’s next hardest games are home against Oklahoma, neutral site against Syracuse and at Kentucky and Mississippi State.
If Tennessee’s defense and running game can once again be good then the Vols should have a good chance of posting a respectable record while taking a step backwards.
