Individual players don’t usually transcend college football games, especially at a place where winning and losing matters as much as it does at Tennessee. But the Citrus Bowl will be remembered as the Nico Bowl.

Monday's bowl matchup with Iowa merely marked the end of the 2023 season. The starting debut of UT five-star freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava was about the 2024 season and beyond.

Tennessee won the game, 35-0. Iamaleava won the day.

He was as good as billed. And that’s saying something.

Iamaleava has been making headlines since he first committed to UT. His supposed multimillion-dollar NIL deal made him a poster player for the NIL era.

But the first day of 2024 wasn’t about money ball. It was about playing ball.

And Iamaleava can play. That shouldn’t qualify as shocking news to anyone who had seen his cameo appearances during the regular season. You didn’t need to be an NFL scout to surmise he has a strong arm, quick release, and way more agility than you would expect from a 6-foot-6 quarterback.

The more you saw of Iamaleava against the Hawkeyes top-10 defense the more you might have wondered why coach Josh Heupel played him so sparingly during the regular season.

Fans can’t do anything about that now. They can only look ahead to what the offense could become with a full season of Iamaleava in 2024.

Don’t get the wrong idea. Iamaleava didn’t produce dazzling passing stats. He completed 12 of 19 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown. But he made an “A” on the eye test.

He never looked like a freshman making his first start. He looked composed and confident – even when his complementary cast was lacking.

UT’s first-quarter offense was fraught with mistakes.

Vols offensive linemen were flagged for back-to-back penalties on their first series. Receivers dropped a couple of easy-to-catch passes. Running back Dylan Sampson failed to so much as nudge a blitzing linebacker, resulting in a sack.

Iamaleava made mistakes of his own, too. He should have thrown the ball away on Tennessee’s last drive of the first half. Instead, he was sacked, and the drive fizzled. That wasn’t the only time he was guilty of holding the ball too long, which was a factor in his being sacked five times.

No matter how talented Iamaleava might be, he’s still a freshman. Practice can’t prepare you for everything regardless of how many reps you get. Not even future star Peyton Manning was perfect in his first start as a freshman in 1994. Tennessee beat Washington State 10-9 − not because of Manning, but because of its defense.

However, this is no time for dwelling on what Iamaeava didn’t do in his first start. Better to focus on what he did do – and what he might do in the games and seasons to come.

How about those two first-half touchdowns runs – one for 19 yards and another for 3 yards? He simply glided into the end zone. He couldn’t have made it look much easier if the defense had left the field en masse. Then, late in the third quarter, he scored another touchdown on a goal-line dive.

In judging Iamaleava’s play, you also must consider the competition. Iowa’s offense is the worst in FBS, but its defense ranks fifth nationally. That defense’s stats have been inflated by playing in the Big Ten West, a division terribly lacking in offensive competence. But it’s safe to say that Iowa fields an above-average defense.

Although the Vols were playing without two of their best offensive linemen, they managed to run the ball effectively. They didn’t throw a single pass on their second touchdown drive and rushed for 169 yards through three quarters against a defense that had allowed only 102.5 yards rushing pergame. The running game alleviated pressure on Iamaleava to make plays in the passing game.

His best pass wasn’t caught. Wide receiver Ramel Keyton pulled up on a deep throw that sailed just over his head early in the third quarter. Had he kept running, the pass might have hit him in stride for a touchdown.

Tennessee’s defense contributed greatly to Iamaleava’s starting debut. It repelled Iowa’s best drive on an end-zone interception by Andrew Turrentine and dominated most of the game. UT's defensive superiority peaked early in the first minute of the fourth quarter when James Pearce flashed his speed on a 52-yard interception return for a touchdown.

REPORT CARD: How we graded Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee football after crushing Iowa in Citrus Bowl

The defense rarely has looked better under Heupel, even though you have to take into account Iowa's offensive shortcomings. Tennessee's running game also succeeded with Sampson and Cam Seldon and without Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small, who opted out after finishing the regular season as UT's top two rushers.

As good as they were, those accomplishments were a sideshow to the Nico Show.

John Adams is a senior columnists. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Nico Iamaleava: Tennessee football QB stars in first start vs Iowa