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Nico Iamaleava’s exit means the minority of SEC teams have an all-important area of continuity
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When Tennessee moved on from Nico Iamaleava, it joined the majority.
Well, let’s provide some context. The majority of SEC teams didn’t have a returning starting quarterback bolt in the post-spring transfer portal window after seeking a $4 million salary. I get that. That’s not the majority that I’m referring to.
The majority of SEC teams don’t have offensive play-caller-to-QB1 continuity. It’s a rarity across college football, and not just because of the transfer portal. Coaches leave. Coaches get fired. Quarterbacks leave for the NFL. Quarterbacks get benched. It happens.
It is, however, a luxury to have play-caller-QB1 continuity. It’s such a luxury that just 7 SEC teams have it entering 2025:
- Arkansas — Taylen Green & Bobby Petrino
- Florida — DJ Lagway & Billy Napier
- LSU — Garrett Nussmeier & Joe Sloan
- Mississippi State — Blake Shapen & Jeff Lebby
- Oklahoma — John Mateer & Ben Arbuckle (at Washington State)
- Texas A&M — Marcel Reed & Colin Klein
- Vanderbilt — Diego Pavia & Tim Beck
Yes, Texas and Georgia fans. You both boast a guy who started multiple games with a returning play-caller. But having at least 1-2 months’ worth of starts like Shapen and Lagway feels a bit different than starting twice like Arch Manning and Gunner Stockton did in 2024.
That all-important area of continuity matters when projecting upside. All 3 All-SEC quarterbacks last year (Jaxson Dart, Quinn Ewers and Pavia) had the same play-caller that they had the previous season. Yes, Pavia had his play-caller, Beck, at New Mexico State in 2023. In 2023, Jayden Daniels had the benefit of continuity with his offensive play-caller (Mike Denbrock), and he won a Heisman Trophy.
Granted, Carson Beck and Jalen Milroe earned All-SEC honors as first-year starters with new offensive play-callers. But in the last 3 seasons, those are the only 2 All-SEC quarterbacks who lacked play-caller-QB1 continuity heading into that season. In the 2020s, 10 of 13 All-SEC quarterbacks had that working in their favor. The 3 who lacked play-caller-QB1 continuity were:
(Note that Mac Jones started 4 games for an injured Tua Tagovailoa in 2019, which meant he and then-Alabama play-caller Steve Sarkisian qualified for play-caller-QB1 continuity heading into Jones’s eventual All-SEC season in 2020.)
Without disrespecting those quarterbacks, we can agree that all of them had pretty favorable surroundings — all of those teams had top-3 rosters in the 247Sports talent composite rankings — to reach All-SEC levels without the benefit of returning as a starting quarterback with the same play-caller.
Of the 10 teams that played in the SEC Championship during the 2020s, 6 of them entered the year with that type of continuity. Those 3 aforementioned signal-callers and 2022 LSU with Daniels were the 4 who overcame that.
Of those 7 teams with that continuity heading into 2025, the only squads with the same Week 1 quarterback and Week 1 offensive play-caller from 2024 are Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State and Vandy. With Tennessee no longer in that group, that’s only 25% of the SEC.
That’s how rare this is. Turnover is inevitable. Does that mean continuity automatically yields improvement? Not necessarily, but it’s a good place to start.
It’s why last year’s Georgia offense was considered such a disappointment even amid an SEC Championship year. Beck and Mike Bobo had that ideal continuity. You could argue that UGA lacked guys at the pass-catcher spots who filled the holes left by Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey, but Beck’s regression went beyond that.
In his last 2 starts at UGA, Beck failed to lead a first-half touchdown drive. Ewers might’ve regressed, but you could argue that his continuity with Sarkisian played a massive role in Texas playing eventual-national champion Ohio State in a 4-quarter game in the semifinals.
If Tennessee was going to take that next step in 2025, we would’ve been talking about Iamaleava benefiting from the continuity with play-caller Joey Halzle in Josh Heupel‘s offense. Lord knows it’ll be extremely difficult for Tennessee’s running backs to be an upgrade from SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson, and while Tennessee’s defense will benefit from play-calling continuity after Tim Banks’ return, that unit’s improvement won’t define the Vols’ 2025 ceiling.
Now, though, Tennessee is in all-too familiar territory. The program’s last QB1 to start and finish his career in Knoxville was Josh Dobbs. Also of note, Dobbs last played at Tennessee when Butch Jones was in good standing. It’s not a coincidence that Tennessee’s best AP Top 25 finish came in 2022, when a No. 6 ranking was the byproduct of Hendon Hooker’s second season as a starter in the system with Year 2 of Alex Golesh calling plays.
Time will tell what SEC offenses like Tennessee will look like without having offensive play-caller-QB1 continuity. It’s interesting that schools like Oklahoma and Vandy have gotten creative in the portal to ensure that they’d have that by getting the packaged deal of a quarterback and his offensive play-caller. Perhaps that becomes more popular moving forward after it fueled Vandy’s historic season.
For now, though, Tennessee just signed up to be in the unfortunate majority.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
