Is Nico the best first year starter in Tennessee history?

#26
#26
LegionnaireOfTheMiserable said:
Stats are inflated these days. Bowl game stats were not officially counted, and regular seasons were 11 games. We didn’t play D 1-AA teams back then like Nico got to benefit from statistically against UTC.

Not to mention that passing stats are just higher in general these days.
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lol move the goalposts to defend your argument. You can keep bashing Nico all you want. His stats keep proving you wrong.
 
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#27
#27
BigOrangeTrain said:
Cool. Let’s look at Tee Martins first year starting stats.

57% 2164 yards 19 TDs and 6 INTs. Oh and that’s with a team loaded with NFL talent. Even with that, Nico was better in 2024.
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13-0, national champion, didn’t get the benefit of playing UTC to pad stats, also the bowl game didn’t count towards his stats.

Plus stats were lower than general back then, and only simpletons fail to comprehend that.
 
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#29
#29
So context matters. In 1995 Peyton had Kent and Nash. Clausen had Stallworth, Washington and Witten. Nico’s first year starter stats were better than Shuler, Martin, Dobbs and Kelly.
 
#30
#30
LegionnaireOfTheMiserable said:
13-0, national champion, didn’t get the benefit of playing UTC to pad stats, also the bowl game didn’t count towards his stats.

Plus stats were lower than general back then, and only simpletons fail to comprehend that.
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Context. Again stats favor Nico sorry. Oh yeah and Inguess you think Martin won the title and Clausen beat UF twice to right? You obviously don’t understand team football.

Answer me this and be honest. What team are you taking for a season as a whole? The 98 team or 24 team? Who had the better OL? WR? TE? LB? DL? DBs?
 
#31
#31
BigOrangeTrain said:
Context. Again stats favor Nico sorry. Oh yeah and Inguess you think Martin won the title and Clausen beat UF twice to right? You obviously don’t understand team football.

Answer me this and be honest. What team are you taking for a season as a whole? The 98 team or 24 team? Who had the better OL? WR? TE? LB? DL? DBs?
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What was that you said about moving goalposts?
 
#32
#32
LivinginthePast said:
Speaking statistically and wins? 2616 yards 19 TDs , 5 Ints. 10 wins with wins over Florida and Alabama hated rivals. Play off birth. Curious to see what first year starters did that through a whole season.

Recent memory Peyton started games in 1994 and Casey Clausen in 2000. But nullifies the argument for first year starter. If you compare their sophomore years you have this. Nico can potentially do better than this next year.

Nico Iamaleava Fresh, 2616 yards , 19 TDs, 5 Ints, Played for a chance at a national championship. Lost to Ohio state.

Peyton Manning Sophmore- 2954 yards, 22 TDS, 4 Ints, 11-1 did not play for a chance at a national championship. Florida or Nebraska were gonna win it. Had a chance but Florida never lost again after we got blown out early in season.

Casey Clausen Sophmore- 2969 yards , 22 TDS , 9 Ints, had a chance to play for a national championship but couldn’t beat LSU in SEC championship.

Things are always different through out the years. Heath Shulers last year he passed for 2354, 25 TDs and 8 Ints. I always hear about how he should have own Heisman.

Anyways point is it was Nico’s first year. Yes he overthrew some folks. Other than Thornton nobody got open either in a regular basis. Has their ever been a first year starter in our history this good ?
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Point is Nico started 1 game his Freshman year and did that because Milton decided to to not play in the bowl game. This year was his second season and as mentioned above, we have had a lot of QBs who have played very well as a starter in the their sophomore year. I don’t think Nico was the best QB who was the starting QB at Tennessee.
 
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#36
#36
Manning and Clausen were probably better as Sophomores, but Nico is way ahead of where Hendon Hooker and Josh Dobbs were at the same point in their careers. That said, he's got to continue to get better and grow. JG had a decent Sophomore year, but didn't really improve over the next 2 years - whereas Dobbs and Hooker both improved dramatically their last few seasons.
 
#39
#39
GetYouSomeofThat said:
So Sampson gets credit for this year but Tee gets all the credit for 98?

Tee was surrounded by far more talent than this year's team.
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All I know is Tee Martin had a great game against a Florida State team loaded with pros and Nico went 13-31 against Ohio State.

Ask yourself honestly, do you think Nico makes those two huge throws to Peerless? Do you think Nico makes a 50+ yard run when we need it against a good Syracuse team? Do you think Nico breaks NCAA records against South Carolina? I don’t.
 
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#41
#41
LegionnaireOfTheMiserable said:
All I know is Tee Martin had a great game against a Florida State team loaded with pros and Nico went 13-31 against Ohio State.

Ask yourself honestly, do you think Nico makes those two huge throws to Peerless? Do you think Nico makes a 50+ yard run when we need it against a good Syracuse team? Do you think Nico breaks NCAA records against South Carolina? I don’t.
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Ask yourself

Is it easier to throw to open receivers or receivers that cant get open.
Is it easier to be successful as a qb when youre being pressured or protected

Again, Tee was surrounded by talent better then himself. Nico has some guys that are going to be drafted but not nearly as many as from that 98 team.

it never ceases to amaze me how much this fanbase can overreact.
 
#42
#42
GetYouSomeofThat said:
Ask yourself

Is it easier to throw to open receivers or receivers that cant get open.
Is it easier to be successful as a qb when youre being pressured or protected

Again, Tee was surrounded by talent better then himself. Nico has some guys that are going to be drafted but not nearly as many as from that 98 team.

it never ceases to amaze me how much this fanbase can overreact.
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How is it an overreaction to say that a quarterback who had an undefeated national championship season and a unanimous 1st team All SEC season is better than a guy who went a calendar month without scoring a single point? Maybe Nico gets better, but he wasn’t good this year.
 
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#43
#43
We had some really good ones. From a pure passing standpoint, Bray was one of the most talented freshmen although he had an awful coach.
 
#44
#44
madbamahater said:
Nico has been the best Freshman starting QB in UT history.
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I guess that's why all our receivers are leaving?? and he's a redshirt freshman - been in the program 2 full years now and got worse as the season progressed against better teams. Has anyone considered that maybe he's the cancer in the locker room?
 
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#46
#46
Orangepantsforever said:
Got hurt 1st half of the ND game. Seemed like he was doing well, up to that point. Shaffer (sp?) had been hurt several games prior, IIRC. Been a long time, so I don’t recall stats……but the game was just so different pre-spread r/o.
But I may be wrong, I haven’t checked the stats. I was a 25 year old pup back then, made enough stupid decisions since to discredit my opinion 😄

I did enjoy watching “good” Ainge though. Not really a fan of his radio work.
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I was at that game. Fulmer called a last second Hail Mary before the half ended and we lost Ainge for the rest of the year. We should have beat Notre Dame that day. We were far and away the better team. That pissed me off so bad lol. We had some dudes on that team.
 
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#47
#47
LegionnaireOfTheMiserable said:
All I know is Tee Martin had a great game against a Florida State team loaded with pros and Nico went 13-31 against Ohio State.

Ask yourself honestly, do you think Nico makes those two huge throws to Peerless? Do you think Nico makes a 50+ yard run when we need it against a good Syracuse team? Do you think Nico breaks NCAA records against South Carolina? I don’t.
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100% agree
 
#48
#48
JohnnyD123 said:
I was at that game. Fulmer called a last second Hail Mary before the half ended and we lost Ainge for the rest of the year. We should have beat Notre Dame that day. We were far and away the better team. That pissed me off so bad lol. We had some dudes on that team.
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I was there too. Baffled at the decision from an ultra conservative coach. We had the lead.
 
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#50
#50
LegionnaireOfTheMiserable said:
Tee and Ainge were better than Nico without question. Bray was too. Hendon hooker’s first year was much better, Shuler was better,
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Tee Martin and Erik Ainge were playcalled way tighter than Nico ever was. Tee wasn’t very good for the first 5-6 games and became a decent QB that leaned on his RBs.
 
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