LIVE: Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel drop major official hint on the starting cornerback for the game against NC State….
Week 2’s road game against the No. 23-ranked NC State Wolfpack will include starting cornerback Rickey Gibson III, who was benched in Week 1 according to Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel’s Monday press conference.
On the day of the game, we held a few guys. Heupel said, “You might have seen ’em warm up.” In the end, Gibson will be prepared to go this week. I had the impression that there were a few players we held out who could have contributed to that game for the sake of our football team, its durability, and everything else. However, we’ll save them for this week.
Gibson III did not play in Week 1 because of a hamstring injury. The true sophomore played in all 13 games last season on special teams and as a reserve defensive back. He finished 2023 with nine total tackles and one pass defended. In spring and summer practices, Gibson established himself as a starter, especially as the team was waiting for Jermod “Bru” McCoy to recover from a scary ankle injury nearly a year ago.
With McCoy and Gibson III healthy and playing, the defense is nearly back to full health.
Josh Heupel, Nico Iamaleava leading Tennessee football
Tennessee football enjoyed a bit of a renaissance with QB Hendon Hooker under center in 2022, going 11-2 (6-2 SEC) with a 31-14 win against Clemson in the Orange Bowl to cap the season ranked No. 6 nationally. The 2023 season wasn’t quite as good under the leadership of QB Joe Milton, but Josh Heupel provided a 9-4 record, a 35-0 win against Iowa in the Citrus Bowl and a respectable No. 17 AP finish.
Now in Year 4, Heupel has redshirt freshman QB Nico Iamaleava needing to prove that his performance in last year’s Citrus Bowl wasn’t a fluke. In that game, he passed for 151 yards and a touchdown on 12-of-19 passing. He also rushed for 27 yards and three touchdowns.
Iamaleava’s Week 1 warmup against Chattanooga was productive and then some. The 6-foot-6, 215 lb star lit it up with 314 yards and three scores.
Impressively, a lot of pundits already think Iamaleava is superior to Hooker and Milton. The signal-caller spoke a big game about what he learned from that contest after crushing Chattanooga.
The national media will immediately become aware of the situation in Knoxville if Iamaleava can live up to those remarks against NC State on Saturday.
