Joey Halzle called down to Tennessee’s sideline from the press box at FirstBank Stadium.

The Vols were down two touchdowns less than five minutes into a season-defining game at Vanderbilt last month. Before the offense went back on to the field for the second time, the second-year offensive coordinator wanted to know what the feeling was line on the sideline.

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"I asked on headset because I'm up top, 'how do we look down there?'" Halzle said. "And every coach was like, 'we're good, nobody is blinking, nobody is worried. They all know what's about to happen.'"

What happened was Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee's redshirt freshman quarterback with a College Football Playoff berth on the line, put together arguably his most important drive of the season.

The Vols went more than 70 yards in five plays, finishing off the drive with the first of four four touchdown passes--a 28-yard strike to Dont'e Thornton Jr. that put them on the board for the first time.

Iamaleava finished 18-of-26 passing for 257 yards and Tennessee won 36-23 to grab its playoff bid. That performance and others like it over the last half of the Vols' 2024 season are why they will play at Ohio State on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN) in the first round of the playoff.

There were plays, moments before that drive that showed Iamaleava was beginning to turn the corner, going from the young five-star player teeming with potential to Tennessee's starting signal caller.

Iamaleava weathered storms against Florida and Alabama, leading comebacks in back-to-back weeks, including the late touchdown pass to Chris Brazzell II to beat the Crimson Tide at Neyland Stadium.

A few weeks later, he had arguably the most complete game of his career to that point in a 10-point win over Kentucky. But it was a chilly late November afternoon in Nashville that all but confirmed that Tennessee (10-2) wasn't only going to make the playoff--it had the quarterback to make a run in it.

"We were down 14-0 (at Vanderbilt) and we needed to put a drive together," Iamaleava said. "And it was still early in the game. We were never really worried. We knew what we had to do."

Iamaleava is never really worried about anything. Halzie picked up on that early on, when he arrived on campus nearly two years ago and when he took over as the full-time starter last January.

His teammates have picked up on it, too. There haven't been many situations that the Vols' offense has been in this season where they've had to worry because their quarterback doesn't.

"The kid has a very even heart rate," Halzle said. "His decision making, and more than anything, his getting rid of the first read into the second and into the third, he was getting all the way through stuff really quickly...You're just seeing him being able to make his decision making, which was always good, he's even taken it to a higher level, so we're looking forward for that to keep growing for him."

Even on the eve of the biggest game of his career--and Tennessee's in the last 26 years--Iamaleava is preparing to walk into Ohio Stadium with the same approach that has gotten him to this point: being himself.

"It's been what I expected," Iamaleava said. "I had two great mentors in front of me, Hendon (Hooker) and Joe (Milton), and they laid down the foundation for me. It was cool for me to come and pick up right where they left off."

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