Nico Iamaleava left the Vols’ game against Mississippi State with an injury

Tennessee opened the second half of its home game against on Saturday evening Mississippi State without a starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava. According to the ESPN broadcast team, the redshirt freshman was ruled out for the remainder of the game with an upper-body injury.

The details of Iamaleava’s injury and the exact time he may have suffered the injury were not immediately clear. He finished the first half with no problems, helping Tennessee to a 38-yard field goal Max Gilbert on the final play of the second quarter, which brought the Vols into halftime with a 20-7 lead.

Fifth grader Gaston Moore replaced Iamaleava, a former five-star prospect, early in the third quarter. Moore, who began his career as an errand boy UCF before following the coach Josh Heupel Transferred to Tennessee in 2021, has now appeared in five of the Vols’ nine games this season.

Moore entered Saturday’s game completing 11 of 17 passes for 163 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He also had one carry for 15 yards.

Iamaleava completed 8 of 13 passes for 174 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions in the first half of Saturday’s game. He also ran for 22 yards on four carries.

He completed three passes of more than 20 yards in the first half, including his 73-yard touchdown pass to the senior wide receiver Don’t’e Thornton Jr. at the start of the second half. Iamaleava also connected with the junior receiver Squirrel knows for a 34-yard touchdown on fourth-and-six during Tennessee’s first possession, giving the Vols an early 7-0 lead.

Iamaleava, who is in his first year as the Vols’ starting quarterback, has started each of Tennessee’s first nine games. He had one of his best performances to date against last week KentuckyHe completed 28 of 38 passes for 292 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions, leading the Vols to a 28-18 victory over the Wildcats.

Earlier this week, Heupel said Iamaleava had “a really good performance” against Kentucky last week.

“I thought he was really good,” Heupel said Monday. “Decision making, eyes, he also did some good things in controlling the run game that a lot of people don’t see and he made plays as well. There were some really special plays from him throughout the game and he continued to do that. Played extremely hard in the competition and just continued to grow as a player.”

In eight games this season, Iamaleava had completed 65.4 percent of his passes while throwing for 1,705 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions. He also rushed for 193 yards and a touchdown on 60 carries.

After last week’s game, Iamaleava said he “just took what the defense gave me.” He added that his performance was “fine.”

“I saw that fast things were out there and that there was a deep game,” he said at the time. “I just took what the defense gave me.”