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Nico Iamaleava TDs, Bowl Selection

By Hudson Brooklyn
Nico Iamaleava TDs, Bowl Selection

The Tennessee football team will be in the race for the college playoffs late in the season, and Nico Iamaleava will be in the end zone more often than Hendon Hooker.

These are just some of our bold predictions for the 2024 season.

The Vols open the season on Saturday (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network) against Chattanooga at Neyland Stadium.

They will have a dynamic quarterback, a dangerous pass rusher and the potential for an explosive offense. That's how we see things developing.

Bold Predictions for Tennessee Football 2024

Nico Iamaleava scores more points than Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton

Specifically, this means scoring touchdowns when the quarterback actually crosses the goal line.

Hooker scored five rushing TDs in 2021 and 2022. Joe Milton ran for seven TDs in 2023. Iamaleava will score more points in his first season as a starter.

Iamaleava has a feel for the goal line, which he showed with three rushing TDs in the Citrus Bowl. UT will try to protect him from injury. But Iamaleava's running ability is too good to keep secret.

PREDICTION FOR TENNESSEE SEASON 2024 Vols Game-by-Game Tips

James Pearce breaks UT record for QB pressure

The statistic for quarterback pressures has only been kept since 1995, meaning Reggie White and Doug Atkins are not on the list. Parys Haralston (2004) and Steve White (1995) share the UT single-season record with 21 pressures.

Albert Haynesworth had 20 in 2001 and Leonard Little had 18 in 1995.

Edge rusher James Pearce had 16 pressures last season. He will surpass that mark and catch Haralston and White for the record by the end of the season.

Vols in playoff race when CFP rankings released

The first College Football Playoff rankings will be announced on November 5th.

By then, UT will have played Chattanooga, NC State, Kent State, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Alabama and Kentucky. The Vols would likely need to reach at least a 6-2 record to be ranked in this first CFP poll.

Whether UT reaches the final 12-team playoff spot depends on how it finishes the season, especially in a difficult road game at Georgia.

Tennessee misses 500 points

It is often assumed that the Vols will return to the high scoring rate of Heupel's first two seasons.

The Vols scored 511 points in 2021 and an incredible 599 points in 2022. In 2023, they dropped to 413 points.

The 2024 team is more likely to score .500 points than .400. But to score .500 points, you have to average 38.5 points in 13 games. That's a high bar, and these Vols won't reach it unless they play a 14th game — either the SEC title game or a long CFP run.

Vols play in the Florida Bowl again

UT has appeared in a bowl game in Florida the last two seasons, capping the 2022 season with a win in the Orange Bowl against Clemson and the 2023 season with a win in the Citrus Bowl against Iowa.

And if the Vols have a good season but miss the playoffs, they will play in another Florida Bowl.

The best SEC teams that are not in the playoffs usually end up in a Florida Bowl: Citrus (Orlando), ReliaQuest (Tampa), Gator (Jacksonville).

UT wouldn't go to the Citrus in back-to-back seasons, so the best bets are the Gator and ReliaQuest. The Vols last played in the Gator Bowl after the 2019 season. They last played in the ReliaQuest Bowl after the 2015 season, when it was still called the Outback Bowl.

If UT advances to the CFP semifinals, it could play in the Orange Bowl in Miami. And yes, that would still count as fulfilling that prediction.

Adam Sparks is Tennessee's football reporter. Email [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparksSupport strong local journalism by subscribing to knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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