Lucas Panzica talks about the state of the Tennessee Volunteers, heading into the 2025 football season, focusing in today on the backup quarterback position.
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00:00As spring practice continues for the Tennessee Volunteers,
00:03there is one position that we have not talked about enough that
00:06could take a big step back in 2025.
00:13Hey, Lucas Panzeca here from 104.5 The Zone and A to Z Sports.
00:17Look, there are a lot of question marks on this Tennessee
00:19roster for the upcoming season.
00:21No doubt, wide receiver, offensive line, pass rusher, who steps
00:26up to replace the production of James Pierce Jr., cornerback,
00:29who fills in while Jermod McCoy recovers from his ACL injury.
00:33A lot to work on throughout the course of spring practice and
00:37the rest of this offseason for this football team.
00:39But there is one very under-discussed position that fits that
00:43category, and it's the backup quarterback spot.
00:47Think about this.
00:47Since Josh Heupel took over as the head coach at Tennessee
00:51in 2021, the Vols quietly have had one of the best backup
00:55quarterback situations in the country, let alone the SEC, during
00:59that time. Josh Heupel gets to Knoxville and acquires a team,
01:04inherits a team that already has Hendon Hooker in place.
01:07He goes out and gets a veteran quarterback in the portal in
01:10Joe Milton.
01:11We all understand what happened from there.
01:13Joe Milton initially started, Hendon Hooker came in.
01:16The rest is history with Hooker taking this offense to great
01:19heights in 2022, but Joe Milton stayed as his backup, and we
01:23saw how that paid off for Tennessee in that orange bowl following
01:27the 2022 season.
01:29Then 2023 comes along.
01:30Joe Milton has his opportunity as the starting quarterback with
01:34a five-star freshman in Nico Iemaliava backing him up.
01:38Not a bad situation to be in.
01:40Joe Milton moves on to the NFL draft and in 2024, Nico Iemaliava
01:44is the starting quarterback with an experienced stable backup in
01:48Gaston Moore.
01:49Now, Gaston Moore didn't have the talent profile that Hendon
01:52Hooker, Joe Milton, or Nico Iemaliava did, but he was a very
01:58experienced and competent backup that had been in the Josh
02:02Hypel system since the UCF days, and Gaston Moore was a guy that
02:06could come in and win you a game in a pinch, and we saw that when
02:10he came in and played the entire second half against Mississippi
02:13State when Nico Iemaliava left that game with a concussion.
02:17Now, I understand a lot of you may have a lasting image of Gaston
02:20Moore throwing an interception against Alabama on the one play
02:24that he came in, but make no mistake, Tennessee had an excellent
02:28backup quarterback situation.
02:30They could trust Gaston Moore to come in and take care of things
02:34and just stabilize things in a pinch.
02:36If Nico was out, well, Gaston Moore is no longer on this football
02:40team, and as we look towards 2025, Nico Iemaliava obviously will
02:45enter another year as this team starting quarterback, but who will
02:48be the backup?
02:49That's a battle at the moment between incoming sophomore Jake
02:53Merklinger and freshman George McIntyre.
02:56Now, both players were highly recruited.
02:58We're four-star prospects out of high school, but both players are
03:02extremely inexperienced, so there's no question there will be a
03:06talented option there regardless of who wins it, and at the moment
03:10you probably give Jake Merklinger the slight edge just for having
03:13a year in the system.
03:14For George McIntyre out of Brentwood Academy, there's a lot to
03:17work on including his frame as he gets acclimated to the college
03:20game, but it is a question mark until we see one of those two
03:25guys actually get reps at the quarterback position.
03:28There's no question the backup sport quarterback spot for Tennessee
03:32has as many questions in 2025 as it has had in the entire Josh
03:37Heupel era.
03:38Now again, both guys are talented and in the end somebody's going
03:41to win that job and this coaching staff will trust them.
03:44Hopefully they will not need them in 2025, but it's something to
03:48think about and something that this football program will have to
03:51focus on throughout the course of this offseason.