Nico Iamaleava has been learning on the job with each snap, and Saturday night will be his 14th start this year for the seventh-ranked Tennessee Volunteers. Will Howard’s next start for No. 6 Ohio State could be his last in college.
The quarterbacks in Saturday night’s first-round College Football Playoff game in Columbus, Ohio, couldn’t be more different in terms of experience. The pressure is the same: Find a way to advance to the Rose Bowl against top-seeded Oregon on Jan. 1.
“I’ve been playing college football for five years now, and this is all I have left,” Howard said. “I have four games max left in my college career, so there’s no other option than to just empty the tank and leave it all out here. Because this is all we have left as college athletes. This is it.”
Iamaleava has faced big expectations since signing with Tennessee as one of the top prospects in the country.
He spent his first season learning behind Joe Milton III, now with the New England Patriots. Iamaleava made his starting debut on Jan. 1 in a rout of Iowa at the Citrus Bowl. He then went 10-2, becoming the Vols’ first quarterback to win 10 games in the regular season since Casey Clausen in 2003.
The California native downplayed the pressure of playing quarterback at Tennessee, which won its last national title in 1998 — a year after Peyton Manning wrapped up his career.
“Shoot, I don’t really think it was too much of a challenge, man,” Iamaleava said. “I knew what I signed up for when I came here. And yeah, being quarterback is a hard thing to do. But that’s what I came to do.”
When it comes to experience, Howard has the edge.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pounder arrived at Ohio State as a graduate transfer with 34 career starts at Kansas State. He made clear his job was getting the ball to the Buckeyes’ elite offensive playmakers, letting the rest take care of itself.
Howard has been really good but not great at executing coordinator Chip Kelly’s oddly conservative game plans. Without a lot of flash, Howard completed an outstanding 72.3% of his passes with at least one touchdown pass in every game.
He has thrown for 2,860 yards, fourth best in the Big Ten, and his 27 passing TDs are tied for second in the conference behind Dillon Gabriel of Oregon, who has 28.
Now Howard has to prove he can bounce back from his worst game of the season. That was the Buckeyes’ inexplicable 13-10 loss to Michigan on Nov. 30, in which he went 19 for 33 for 175 yards with a TD and two interceptions.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day sees Howard’s resiliency and positive approach as evidence the veteran will be ready. The eighth-seeded Buckeyes (10-2, No. 6 CFP) are chasing their first national championship since 2014, when they were coached by Day’s predecessor, Urban Meyer.
“You can see he’s got a bounce in his step right now,” Day said. “He wants to get back on the field as fast as he possibly can. You can see that. He wants to lead this offense, and it’s going to be a very important part of this game on Saturday night is his leadership, and he’ll be ready to go.”
Iamaleava has gotten help from the Southeastern Conference’s best rushing attack, but he is the key to an offense that comes in fourth in the Football Bowl Subdivision in yards per game at
492.9. The Vols also rank eighth nationally in scoring at 37.3 points per game, and both stats that might be higher had they not jumped out to early leads against nonconference opponents.
The 6-6, 215-pound Iamaleava has 2,512 yards passing, 19 TDs and only five interceptions for the ninth-seeded Vols (No. 7 CFP).
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel has watched Iamaleava work off the field to be a leader by mingling with his teammates.
On the field, he has been impressed by the young quarterback’s ability to move on to the next play. That came in handy after Tennessee fell behind 14-0 in the regular-season finale at Vanderbilt.
“As a young quarterback, that’s really hard to do,” Heupel said. “He’s done a really good job of that.”
The pressure to deliver might be heavier on Howard, with the Buckeyes having home-field advantage even after the Michigan loss. He understands the expectations.
“We can’t go out any other way but winning it all,” Howard said. “That’s the way that I see it. I want this for this team so bad.”
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