The big “if” situation. See, Vols ain’t doing bad. They are 3rd in the SEC, and Josh Heupel has managed to secure a massive 10-win season. In that game against Vandy, the Vols won 36-23, and this was massive. But now, here is the thing. With the 2 massive upsets; Miami and Ohio State losing this weekend, it has opened the door for the Vols to hit the first-round matchup against Georgia. The Dawgs will come ready after the SEC title game, so the question now is whether the Vols are prepared enough to tackle Kirby Smart and Carson Beck, who are finally back in form and are gunning for the national championship title.

Call it wishful thinking or something else, but JD PicKell does think Tennessee has a shot, but it hinges on one singular factor. “So again, if you get this version of Nico and you can promise me, you get some deep shots, Tennessee fans, you should have every reason to believe you can with the national championship,” PicKell mentioned. It all hinges on what Nico Iamaleava does. See, this dude has been very on and off. Nico almost cost the Vols the season when the Gators managed to push the team into overtime. The dude had no touchdowns in that entire game and gave out a sack.

Even when they went up against the Dawgs a few weeks back, Nico had one of the worst performances of the season. No touchdowns, got sacked 3 times, and made 20 out of the 33 attempted passes. But hey, on the flip side, he went absolutely crazy against Vandy and even Alabama.

While his completion rate against Bama was just 51%, he still managed to sneak in a touchdown and that, paired with how well the defense was, made it possible for the Vols to clench the 24-17 win. And for Vandy? Nico had 4 touchdowns and was explosive from the start to the end.

But there is also another problem. While PicKell does point out that if Nico gives it his 100%, then Vols could have a chance at grabbing the national championship, the inconsistency that we have seen from his plays points towards a different future.

Taking on the Dawgs, once more

“Nico Iamaleava has 15 TDs and 4 interceptions. 12 of his 15 TDs came against Kent State, Miss State, Chattanooga, NC State, and UTEP.” This was something Bear Bryant’s Burner pointed out on X a few days back. Now, why are we highlighting this? See, we just talked about what PicKell thought could change the Vols’ future, and this is an important aspect of that.

Whenever you have put Nico against a “good” team, he has choked. The Bama game, although a win, was still a choke with all the missed passes, and so was the Georgia game. What is the guarantee that this won’t happen again during the playoffs?

Vols defense ain’t something we have to think about. These guys have done an amazing job of stopping opponents at around 15-17 points on average, and that is good enough. It is the offense that should worry Josh Heupel and all the Tennessee fans.