Iamaleava Sizzles as Volunteers Route Mocs in Season Opener (2024)

KNOXVILLE - Nico Iamaleava was piping hot in his first home start.

The redshirt freshman completed 22-of-28 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns - all in the first half - as No. 15 Tennessee blasted Chattanooga, 69-3, before a sold-out but searing crowd of 101,915 Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium.

"First of all, I just want to thank all the fans," said Volunteer coach Josh Heupel. "It was a hot day out there. They showed up early. It was electric. The stadium was juiced right from the beginning. Appreciate all of them coming out tonight.

Tennessee scored on its first seven possessions, including touchdowns on six, in rolling to a 45-0 halftime lead over the Mocs. In the first two quarters, the Big Orange outgained their instate counterparts, 503-83 with 21 first downs to Chattanooga’s four.

The Volunteers finished with 414 yards passing and 304 yards rushing in piling up the second-most total yardage number in program history.

The defense also kept the Mocs out of the end zone.

“Defensively, I thought just the line of scrimmage did a really nice job, played good third-down defense, tight coverage for most of it,” continued Heupel. “So, really a lot of positives on that side of football. Offensively, did some really good things early. All in all, good day and, obviously, specialists did a really, really good job for most of the day."

Iamaleava’s passing yardage in the first half was a program record, topping Tyler Bray’s 313 yards against Troy in 2012.

“I didn't know,” said Iamaleava. “A couple of my teammates were telling me, and then that little interview I had at the end of the game was really when I found out. Yeah, man, it was a cool, surreal moment. I didn't even know about it, but it felt good to go out there and operate with my teammates."

It seemed as if the redshirt freshman did little, if anything, wrong.

"Your perspective might be a little bit different than mine,” smiled Heupel. “But he knows those things, too. He's a young player. Came out, played really efficiently, effectively, made plays down the field. But there’s some things that he can control and be better and he knows that and he wants that too."

On the day, 15 different Volunteers had at least one reception, including Kingsport’s Charlie Browder, eight had at least one rushing attempt and three different quarterbacks played.

"I know someone in here gave me a hard time for all the ‘ors’ that we put on the depth chart, but we’re going to play more guys than we have,” explained Heupel. “Our roster is deeper. We’ve got an opportunity to. We’re going to need those guys as we go throughout the course of the season. I think we had 35 guys that it was the first time playing inside of Neyland Stadium playing today.”

Tennessee’s first touchdown drive was the longest of the first half in 3:43. The other five were less than two minutes with two less than 26 seconds.

Dylan Sampson rushed for the first touchdown from one yard out and scored two more on runs of three and five yards before the half was over, finishing with 124 yards on 12 attempts.

“We expect him (Sampson) to play the way that he did today,” said Heupel. “Decisive, violent cuts, got pad under pad and, obviously, has the ability to do anything that you want a running back to do.”

Tight end Ethan Davis caught Iamaleava’s first touchdown toss to make it 14-0. Dont'e Thornton Jr. then hauled in a 36-yard reception to up Tennessee’s advantage to 21-0. It was the first of two touchdown catches for Thornton who led all Volunteer receivers in yardage with 105 on three grabs in his first game back since being injured making a touchdown catch at Missouri.

"It felt great," Thornton said. "I felt like I needed to have it being my first game back, this is the game I expected to have. It felt good."

Heupel also noted that Thornton had just begun to thrive after moving from inside to outside

“Dont’e started inside because we were real thin there last year,” Heupel explained. “He moved outside middle of the season. He was starting to play his best football, most comfortable. Gets injured on the long play. Being healthy all off-season, being at home on the outside, he’s just continued to be extremely comfortable in what we’re doing offensively and he’s played really consistent."

Max Gilbert knocked home the first of his two field goals to cap the first quarter scoring with Sampson and Thornton accounting for the three second period touchdowns.

Karns high school product DeSean Bishop scored his first career touchdown on a 22-yard gallop in the third quarter. The Knoxville native finished with five carries for 60 yards.

Khalifa Keith added ten carries for 44 yards and a touchdown with Jackson Ross capping the scoring by blocking and returning a punt 13 yards.

Playing in his first game since a gruesome leg injury, Bru McCoy paced Tennessee receivers with six receptions for 89 yards.

"Huge for him, his family,” noted Heupel. “I know I saw them in the hotel last night. I know they were excited, anxious, nervous, all of it and Bru was excited to play. Great that he got opportunities to get the ball in his hand, make plays and played really well."

Chris Brazzell II added five receptions for 59 yards and Cameron Seldon rushed seven times for 47 yards.

Back-up quarterbacks Gaston Moore and Jake Merklinger operated the Volunteer offense in the second half. Moore completed 7-of-12 passes for 69 yards while Merklinger was 4-for-4 for 31 yards.

Will Brooks led the defense with five tackles. Tyre West collected the only sack of the day and tallied two tackles for loss. Heralded true freshman defensive back Boo Carter was credited with a pair of stops.

Tennessee returns to action next week in the Duke’s Mayo Classic against North Carolina State. Kickoff from Bank of America Stadium is set for 7:30 p.m.

First Quarter
(11:09) TENNESSEE – Dylan Sampson 1 run (Max Gilbert kick); 11-65, 3:43, 0-7
(8:34) TENNESSEE - Ethan Davis 4 pass from Nico Iamaleava (Max Gilbert kick); 4-35, 1:03, 0-14
(7:18) TENNESSEE – Dont’e Thornton, Jr. 36 pass from Nico Iamaleava (Max Gilbert kick); 2-59, 0:26, 0-21
(3:32) TENNESSEE – Max Gilbert 36 FG; 8-72, 2:28, 0-24

Second Quarter
(14:03) TENNESSEE – Dylan Sampson 3 run (Max Gilbert kick); 6-78, 1:59, 0-31
(10:14) TENNESSEE – Dont’e Thornton, Jr. 10 pass from Nico Iamaleava (Max Gilbert); 9-79, 1:55, 0-38
(6:43) TENNESSEE – Dylan Sampson 45 run (Max Gilbert), 2-61, 0:16, 0-45

Third Quarter
(10:10) CHATTANOOGA – J. Kelley 43 FG; 9-50, 4:50, 3-45
(7:15) TENNESSEE – Max Gilbert 42 FG; 9:45, 2:54, 3-48
(1:13) TENNESSEE – DeSean Bishop 22 run (Max Gilbert kick); 6-63, 1:33, 3-55

Fourth Quarter
(4:06) TENNESSEE – Khalifa Keith 1 run (Josh Turbyfill kick); 17-80, 7:05, 3-62
(1:07) TENNESSEE – Jordan Ross 13 blocked punt return (Josh Turbyfill kick); 3-69

Individual Statistics

Rushing (Total-Yards)
Chattanooga - Reggie Davis 20-51, Journey Wyche 6-23, Lance Jackson 8-8, Chase Artopoeus 1-(-8).
Tennessee - Dylan Sampson 12-124, DeSean Bishop 5-60, Cameron Seldon 7-47, Khalifa Keith 10-43, Peyton Lewis 4-14, Bru McCoy 1-9, Nico Iamaleava 4-6, Jake Merklinger 3-1.

Passing (Comp-Att-Int-Yards)
Chattanooga - Chase Artopoeus 12-23-0-141, Luke Schomburg 1-1-0-12.
Tennessee - Nico Iamaleava 22-28-0-314, Gaston Moore 7-12-1-69, Jake Merklinger 4-4-0-31.

Receiving (Total-Yards)
Chattanooga - Sam Phillips 5-54, Javin Whatley 3-40, Jay Gibson 2-22, Zaire Thornton 2-18, Chris Domercant 1-19.
Tennessee – Bru McCoy 6-89, Chris Brazzell II 5-59, Dont’e Thornton 3-105, Dylan Sampson 3-29, Trey Weary 3-18, Squirrel White 2-22, Ethan Davis 2-20, Kaleb Webb 2-19, Holden Staes 2-13, Nathan Leaco*ck 1-13, Dayton Sneed 1-12, DeSean Bishop 1-10, Chas Nimrod 1-7, Cameron Seldon 1-(-2).

Tackles (Solo-Assist-Total)
Chattanooga - Jordan Walker 3-5-8, Josh Battle 3-5-8, Zion Rutledge 3-4-7, Alex Mitchell 0-7-7, Reuben Lowery III 3-3-6, D’Arco Perkins-McAllister 3-2-5, Jestin Gilmore 3-2-5.
Tennessee – Will Brooks 4-1-5, Jeremiah Telander 4-0-4, Jalen Smith 1-3-4.

Sacks (Total-Yards)
Chattanooga - Joseph Bakhole 1-4, Ky Tayo ½-1, Jaden Gaines ½-1.
Tennessee – Tyre West 1-8

Tackles for Loss (Total Yards)
Chattanooga - Joseph Bakhole 1-4, Chris Victor 1-2, Jestin Gilmore 1-1, Jaden Gaines ½-1, Ky Tayo ½-1.
Tennessee - Tyre West 2-11, Christian Harrison 1-2, Jordan Ross 1-2, Elijah Simmons ½-2, Joshua Josephs ½-1.