Nico Iamaleava, in his first year as the QB1, showed glimpses of his ceiling at Knoxville. He made plays when it mattered, and except for a few faulty games, Josh Heupel’s star largely proved his mettle. Even in their disappointing loss to the Buckeyes, Nico was trying, but nothing worked for the offense. Now, going into 2025, one key narrative surrounds the improvements Iamaleava can show. But there’s an issue. His offensive weapons, the wide receivers, are mostly young and fresh.
Tennessee has lost key receivers after the 2024 season commenced. The 2022-class WR, Kaleb Webb, has moved to Wake Forest. After three years at the Vols, Chas Nimrod also moved to the portal just before the team played Ohio State in the playoffs. The same goes for Nathan Leacock. And then there were the losses to the draft. Donte Thornton Jr., the WR who had the most receiving yards in 2024 (661), declared for the draft. The same goes for Bru McCoy.
Now, as the spring practices are underway, the relative inexperience in the WR room has been a theme of discussion. Who can be the new WR1 for Nico Iamaleava? There’s one name. It’s Chris Brazzell, who’d be playing his second season for Tennessee. However, it takes time for a QB-WR trust to develop. The Vols’ fans would know that the seeds of that trust have already been sown. It is bearing some results in practice. Just last week, we saw how Nico Iamaleava threw towards Chris Brazzle near the sidelines. On the one hand, we saw progress in Nico’s read of the defense. At the same time, we also got a glimpse of what this partnership could look like for Josh Heupel.
There are other names in the mix, including Mike Matthews, Braylon Stayley, and Amari Jefferson. But after the first week of the practice, it’s safe to say that nobody is spreading hope like Chris Brazzell does. ON3’s JD PicKell broke down that glimmer with a pinch of salt.
Brazzell has quite well understood his role from day 1 of practice. He starts to behave like he rules Tennessee’s crop of offensive weapons. One terrific catch was the ultimate highlight of his offseason homework so far. Mental toughness will be another area Chris will look to take care of heading into another year at Knoxville. Brazzell said he kind of pleaded to certain guys in the locker room to get under his skin so that he could work under that stress and the restricted headspace to chisel out the best.
You can clearly understand he was not lying, seeing the pure athletic flashes in the spring camp. “The other thing here, seeing Chris Brazzell make a catch like that, dude, is it’s eye candy. It truly is. Because that’s been the question for us really, all spring leading into 2025 is, can somebody in the Tennessee wide receiver room stand up and be an absolute dude for you?” asked the ON3 journalist.
Nico Iamaleava has put his faith in Chris and asked him to watch over the junior guys to make it a wholesome receiver corps altogether. Understandably, he is stepping into the spotlight. But don’t forget, his role will be interesting, albeit inexperienced. He had his moments, of course, but not enough to guarantee you a breakout season.
“Now, I’ll say this: we got to see spring practice a year ago, got to go to the indoor. I want to say it was practice 12 or 13, saw some team, saw some seven on seven. I left that practice like hay, Chris might be all SEC-like; he was that impressive. He transferred from Lane a year ago, averaged 16 yards a catch, and had some flash moments this year, most notably that touchdown catch against Alabama.” PicKell revisited the past glory of Brazzell.
The analyst continued putting Nico’s future in the sophomore receiver’s hands. He said if Chris clicks to be that guy Nico has been looking for, it can be a game-changer. But no worries. Josh Heupel also has an escape clause, even if Chris Brazzell fails to live up.
Josh Heupel has a new WR commit to bet a dime on
Tennessee seems to pick a picture-perfect fit in Tyreek King. A three-star pass catcher from Knoxville, one of the Southeast’s most dynamic playmakers, kind of drops at Josh Heupel’s hands like a godsend. King appears to mesh under the Vols’ high-flying passing attack real quickly. The 5-foot-10 has tremendous control over his body and a diverse tempo. Consequently, he is seasoned in formatting consistent separation off the line of scrimmage and on the upper route quite seamlessly.
King has an official visit scheduled to Tennessee on June 20. According to 247Sports’ Tom Loy, it’s possible that King could also take official visits to Missouri and Georgia. It will be, however, a thing to watch out for how Heupel and his staff can keep him interested in the program amidst the growing competition.
But so far, the Vols look to be in a safe zone in retaining King’s commitment. But they need to keep on pursuing him as if he’s still an uncommitted prospect. They, after all, won’t want any other powerhouse to swoop in late and take away their prize.
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