Nico's 'solid' performance?

[Mccage]

First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.

Yeah that throw he made to Keyton on the sidelines that was reviewed was better than the shade your throwing

 

[17Vols]

Everything’s worth complaining about I guess, even the good stuff

 

[Pride85]

First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.

That number would have been significantly higher had Ramel Keyton not dropped a perfectly thrown slant pattern and then stopped running on what would have been a 40+ yard corner pattern later on. I do believe 4 TDs accounted for (3 Rushing) puts him in the highly praised category. He made zero mistakes and seemed to make the correct read on a regular basis.

 

[Pride85]

First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.

BTW, you are being extremely nitpicky.

 

[papatomany]

Wow. Six pages of folks that didn't actually read the OPs OP. He's just saying that raving like Nico had just set every passing record known to man is an overreaction, and that "he played well and showed signs of great things to come" would be more appropriate.

 

[chuck0303]

There is some truth to this. But I would counter with a few things:

1) He would have had about 50 more yards and another TD if Keyton didn't stop running on the one long pass
2) This was really game #1 for Nico. He's not a polished QB yet. We're just looking for glimpses of things he can do
3) Iowa's defense is good. It might not really be top 5 good, but it's good - probably the 4th best we ran into throughout the season.
4) We were down several players on offense that would have made Nico look better

I tend to focus on the things he showed he's capable of and not the overall passing yards. And, like you said, took what the defense gave him and didn't do anything stupid. That's all he needed to do.

I would imagine that Heupel & company didn't want to have his freshman QB (possibly) throw 3 picks going for it all when it wasn't necessary. Why would you take a chance destroying the freshman's confidence when that wasn't necessary. I doubt they were afraid that would happen but why take unnecessary chances in this game. If they really needed for him to throw those long passes I'm sure the coaches would call the play. It just seemed smart to me that you wouldn't take those unnecessary chances. Who's not satisfied with his performance? It could all be better, or worse. We could all pick at who didn't do what but I'm very satisfied at Nico's performance. 2024 is looking pretty good right now.

 

[vol94fan]

He had pocket "presents". It was like Christmas all over again. Football IQ very high.

 

[VolFanatic27]

First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.

In his defense, there were a few bad drops by Keyton and Sampson, plus a route miscue at the end zone. He outperformed my expectations for his first start and I can’t wait to see what he does this year, GBMFO!

 

[loservol]

Wow. Six pages of folks that didn't actually read the OPs OP. He's just saying that raving like Nico had just set every passing record known to man is an overreaction, and that "he played well and showed signs of great things to come" would be more appropriate.

Cause some of us suspect him and a few others on here of just being Milton fanboys wanting to complain about how we were all a bunch of big meanies and unfair to Joe.

 

[hUTch2002]

First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.

I would say yes you’re being nitpicky. We had a couple of missing pieces on the line, which of course will happen during the year too. However, that WR core wasn’t anything like what he will have next year with Matthews, Brazzell and hopefully Bru. Instead of being options 1, 2 and 3 the guys he was throwing to will be 3, 4 and 5 or maybe not even 3 if Bru does return. Plus, he was playing a good D and he took care of the ball well. He clearly has a good feel for the game and better pocket presence than Milton.

 

[lastlapuncle]

tennesseekilt,Nico showed no hesitation when going thru his progressions,he was smooth withhis handoffs,quick in deciding to rub the ball,no turnovers.Where would your questions be as to his ability to be the Vol qb.Maybe you read too many articles where nobodies question anything they don't agree.

 

[Sara Clark]

 

[hUTch2002]

After watching Kelton last year, this year I keep thinking how much money is he making not to catch passes?

Yeah but that catch he made late in the first half against Florida helped turn that 2022 game around as the Gators had grabbed momentum. Plus, it was just an amazing play. For that alone I will always think of him fondly while he sits behind Matthews, Brazzell and others.

 

[LouderVol]

First of all, great win and an overall good performance by everyone other than the OL and RBs in protection. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I wanted to question the seemingly overblown praise of Nico. While I did feel like it was a good performance overall, it's hard to call 150 passing yards "showing out" in any way, shape, or form - despite what the media and online posters have contended. And while some of the runs, and obviously the TD ones, were nifty, I felt like he didn't do a great job evading rushers or passing with any accuracy while on the run.

On the plus side, and it's a huge plus, he took what the defense gave him and didn't make any costly mistakes. Still, I would have liked to see some connections on deep balls and at least one or two 'wow' plays that would have really showed us what's coming.

Am I being nitpicky? Again, love the win and I'm excited for the Nico era, but I just don't think this game was that much of an indicator of what we'll see. At least I hope not.

TL;DR I think it was a case of the pro's vastly out waying the cons, and none of the cons were game breakers, while some of the pro's were otherwise missing from our offense this year.

I haven't seen or thought of it as "showing out", more of a "coming out" reaction. at least IMO celebrating his performance as a "coming out" is appropriate.

I think most TN fans would be pissed if we played some freshman who never started before and he came in and scored 4 tds against us.

as far as Nico in the game I think there is very little to actually complain about. which again as a freshman qb is a very good thing. of course he wasn't perfect, and the stats weren't eye watering but there were a lot of things that went well.

Regardless of the passing yards, Nico ran the offense well; Joe didn't always do that. and QB was such a missing piece in our offense this year, so now our fans saw a QB who at least looks like he can get our offense to be top 10 again.

We had 4 redzone trips and came away with 4 TDs. on the season we had 54 redzone attempts, and only 28 redzone touchdowns. increasing our efficiency will be huge.

speaking of efficiency and leading the offense we also only had 1 3-and-out. and we ran the ball three times with Seldon and gained 9 yards. He managed the tempo well.

even with 7 incompletions very few of them were on Nico, see all the talk about Keyton. 63% in your first game against a statistical Top 5 defense is pretty dang good.

and as others have pointed out, this is the way Iowa operates. they keep everything in front of them, and kept most teams below their season averages in just about every offensive category, except for us and Penn State.

and for me the intangibles were also huge. he seemed much more decisive about running, personally this was always my biggest issue with Joe, and that allowed him to pick up needed first downs or TDs. He didn't have any, that I remember, risky passes, and he made progressions. he spread the ball out to 6 different receivers, finding the open man that the defense was giving him.

The sacks are definitely a problem, but it certainly wasn't all Nico's fault, and he never seemed shook up about getting sacked 6 times. I think a lot of QBs would have been rattled by that, Nico didn't even seem to notice.

He also had a couple really good passes and put the ball in great locations, even if they weren't always caught. hopefully as our WRs work more with him we see more of those caught than we did against Iowa.

the pro's were what we are looking for. a reliable and willing qb run game will do a whole lot to open up this offense. we have always been a run first offense, and were missing the QB run. He took care of the ball, and commanded the offense. never seemed overwhelmed.

 

[papatomany]

Cause some of us suspect him and a few others on here of just being Milton fanboys wanting to complain about how we were all a bunch of big meanies and unfair to Joe.

So apparently I'm right that the reactions aren't based on the OPs OP. Got it.

 

[Stoked]

Jameis Winston once threw 5109 yards in an NFL season (10th most by a QB)... but was a turnover machine and threw 30 ints.

A lot of passing yards are great but give me no turnovers and 4 total TDs over a bunch of yards thrown.

Hooker threw for over 6000 yards in two years here but it was his 58 TDs and only 5 interceptions that was most impressive to me.

 

[UTgrad2015]

Just tell us you don’t watch a lot of football fam

 

[VFL-82-JP]

View attachment 607164

Not that there's anything wrong with that?



Go Vols!

 

[tennesseekilt]

I appreciate all the responses to this, truly. Even the pointed ones. Just to put a cap on this thread, I completely agree and they all make me feel much better about what the Nico era is about to bring. Thanks all!

 

[wmcovol]

151 on 12 completions is pretty good. Tennessee ran the ball too good for big passing number’s although 2 drops & the fore mentioned Keyton play cost him close to 100+ yds.

The most impressive thing wasn’t the stats. It was how well he reacted to pressure & ran the offense v

 

[EastTNVol6240]

I saw another poster say some people here wouldn’t be happy with a nude Margot Robbie straddled on gold bricks. True freshmen just made a debut in a bowl game against a statistically good defense. He accounted for multiple touchdowns and didn’t make silly mistakes. He looked just as good as Joe has with 6 years of coaching. What did you envision?

 

[GAVol]

Tone just posted the cut up of all the throws on Youtube. Looks like 4 drops and 1 odd looking "quit" where I guess Keyton just didn't see the ball.

 

[hUTch2002]

TL;DR I think it was a case of the pro's vastly out waying the cons, and none of the cons were game breakers, while some of the pro's were otherwise missing from our offense this year.

I haven't seen or thought of it as "showing out", more of a "coming out" reaction. at least IMO celebrating his performance as a "coming out" is appropriate.

I think most TN fans would be pissed if we played some freshman who never started before and he came in and scored 4 tds against us.

as far as Nico in the game I think there is very little to actually complain about. which again as a freshman qb is a very good thing. of course he wasn't perfect, and the stats weren't eye watering but there were a lot of things that went well.

Regardless of the passing yards, Nico ran the offense well; Joe didn't always do that. and QB was such a missing piece in our offense this year, so now our fans saw a QB who at least looks like he can get our offense to be top 10 again.

We had 4 redzone trips and came away with 4 TDs. on the season we had 54 redzone attempts, and only 28 redzone touchdowns. increasing our efficiency will be huge.

speaking of efficiency and leading the offense we also only had 1 3-and-out. and we ran the ball three times with Seldon and gained 9 yards. He managed the tempo well.

even with 7 incompletions very few of them were on Nico, see all the talk about Keyton. 63% in your first game against a statistical Top 5 defense is pretty dang good.

and as others have pointed out, this is the way Iowa operates. they keep everything in front of them, and kept most teams below their season averages in just about every offensive category, except for us and Penn State.

and for me the intangibles were also huge. he seemed much more decisive about running, personally this was always my biggest issue with Joe, and that allowed him to pick up needed first downs or TDs. He didn't have any, that I remember, risky passes, and he made progressions. he spread the ball out to 6 different receivers, finding the open man that the defense was giving him.

The sacks are definitely a problem, but it certainly wasn't all Nico's fault, and he never seemed shook up about getting sacked 6 times. I think a lot of QBs would have been rattled by that, Nico didn't even seem to notice.

He also had a couple really good passes and put the ball in great locations, even if they weren't always caught. hopefully as our WRs work more with him we see more of those caught than we did against Iowa.

the pro's were what we are looking for. a reliable and willing qb run game will do a whole lot to open up this offense. we have always been a run first offense, and were missing the QB run. He took care of the ball, and commanded the offense. never seemed overwhelmed.

TL;DR

 

[butchna]

Wow. Six pages of folks that didn't actually read the OPs OP. He's just saying that raving like Nico had just set every passing record known to man is an overreaction, and that "he played well and showed signs of great things to come" would be more appropriate.

And declaring ANYONE raved what you suggested is a flat out LIE! The kid didn't throw a BAD PASS. I can't recall the last time that's happened with our starting QB...that includes Hooker.

 

[butchna]

I appreciate all the responses to this, truly. Even the pointed ones. Just to put a cap on this thread, I completely agree and they all make me feel much better about what the Nico era is about to bring. Thanks all!