It’s unlikely any Tennessee freshman quarterback since Peyton Manning has seen the levels of hype Nico Iamaleava has received in Knoxville this season. On Saturday, Alabama football will travel to Knoxville, to experience Nico-mania in person.

Asked about the redshirt freshman, Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer praised Iamaleava on Monday.

“I think he’s got a live arm, extremely talented,” DeBoer said. “You can tell that they’ve got the skill on the outside to where they can hit the home run and make big plays anytime. I think a lot of it is just trying to disrupt him to where the continuity and the flow is just not consistent, and that’s gonna be any quarterback. Every week, that’s the goal is try to just really cause some chaos and change things up on them.”

With the offensive attack Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel favors, the quarterback is the key to success, even more than most teams. UT’s most successful season under Heupel came in 2022, when the Volunteers had Hendon Hooker behind center, before dropping off a bit in 2023, with Joe Milton at the position.

Iamaleava was the No. 2 quarterback in the class of 2023, falling behind only Arch Manning in 247Sports’ composite rankings. He sat behind Milton last season, but played well in UT’s bowl game.

Tennessee’s offense has become more run-based this season, but in the early going, Iamaleava looked as advertised. He’s thrown for 1,219 yards so far this season, with seven touchdowns and three interceptions.

The freshman has struggled at times over the Volunteers’ past two games, a loss at Arkansas and an overtime victory against Florida in Knoxville. DeBoer said Monday that it’s important to stop Iamaleava from getting hot.

“They get into their tempo off of positive plays, and that’s the key is try to make sure that they don’t get into that rhythm, just like any offense, that’s what you’re trying to do.” DeBoer said. “He’s talented. You can see it’s there. He’s still, I think, growing and developing, and we’ve just gotta make sure we disrupt him enough and make sure we’re showing pictures and also getting bodies on bodies on the outside to where we make life hard like we would want to any other opponent.”

Tennessee hasn’t relied on the deep passes as much this season, but the potential is still there. The Volunteers have a solid group of wideouts, including Bru McCoy and Squirrel White, who can make an Alabama defense that has struggled with coverage busts in recent weeks, pay dearly.

“They’re a team that on any given down can create an explosive play,” Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said. “So that’s something that we’re going to have to be very mindful of. We’re going to have to be very thorough as a defense. I think ultimately it’s going to be about our consistency, doing the same high level job over and over again in order to play at an optimal level on Saturday.”

Alabama and Tennessee are scheduled to kick off at 2:45 p.m. CT Saturday at Neyland Stadium. The game will be aired on ABC.