Josh Heupel, Jim Mora play down frosty handshake after Tennessee beat UConn

The game itself was rather uneventful, Tennessee thrashing a lesser UConn team, 59-3, at home. Yet, after the game, head coaches Josh Heupel and Jim Mora exchanged a very brief, less-than-friendly handshake.

Mora breezed past Heupel and appeared to have said something. Heupel, after the handshake, turned and smirked as Mora walked away.

Neither addressed the issue in-depth postgame at their press conferences.

“The only thing I can say is it was a tough game. I am proud of our guys for the class that they showed on that football field before, during and after the game,” Mora said.

Heupel, when asked about it, demurred.

“I don’t know what I did on the back end of the handshake,” he said. “But you know, they got a good football team that’s played extremely hard and they’ve lost a lot of close, close ball games.”

Tennessee got its quarterback of the future in the game

Vols fans got another peek into their future on Saturday against the UConn Huskies, as Nico Iamaleava threw the first touchdown pass of his college career.

Following the 59-3 beatdown of the Huskies, Vols’ head coach Josh Heupel broke down the play of the five-star trigger man.

“Yeah, just the way the season’s unfolded we haven’t had a lot of opportunities for guys that are a little bit down our depth chart and are not starting to get some of that action. Nico went out, I thought he handled all parts of the game really well for the most part. There was a couple learning opportunities for him. I thought he was timely using his feet. Accurate with the football for the most part. A couple of things he would want back. Really solid performance from him,” Heupel said in his postgame press conference.

As a member of the Class of 2023, Iamaleava was a five-star recruit out of Long Beach (Calif.) Warren, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 1 overall prospect in the state, the No. 3 quarterback in the class and the No. 6 overall prospect in the class.

Back in September, offensive coordinator Joey Halzle explained the value of getting Iamaleava on the field early.

“And then going against these guys this week, you’re going to get a multitude of pressures and coverages and it’s going to be great for everyone to see that, because that’s a huge eye discipline game,” Halzle said. “Which, once again, for whether he’s an older backup or a young guy coming in for his first couple snaps, it’s a huge game for him to have to define his eye.”