Guess who is the latest foe of the college football programs? The month of December and the cold that the holiday season brings with it. One of the top teams that’s probably sweating bullets right now is Josh Heupel’s squad. After all, the southern program, Tenessee Volunteers, is not used to the harsh climate that Ohio State has to offer. More than others, the Vols must be more worried about their star QB, Nico Iamaleava.

But looks like it’s not Heupel’s Tenessee but Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes that needs to worry. After all, Iamaleava thinks that the temperature hitting a dip won’t slow him down one bit. On the other hand, Day and Co. are working a bit harder to be all prepped up for the sub -30 degree.  

Nico Iamaleava stays calm amidst chilly Columbus forecasts

Fans are no longer brooding over the stats, doing comparisons between Ohio State and Tennessee’s records. At the moment, one of the big storylines of the first round of the College Football Playoff has been the weather in Columbus. The Ohio Stadium is all decked up to host Heupel’s army. But the weatherman has some bad news for the Vols since Columbus is calling for a high of 29 degrees and a low of 17 degrees on Saturday, September 21. Isn’t this enough bad news for Iamaleava?

After all, Tennessee’s redshirt freshman quarterback hails from Long Beach, California. So it is unimaginable for the Western Coast peeps to be playing in frigid temps. That’s when a concerned reporter asked Iamaleava a question during the press meet: “A lot of questions have been asked about you and the weather because Southern California.” 

He further asked, “Do you think it’s more our interest and fans’ interest than yours? Do you spend much time thinking about what the weather’s going to be?” And that’s when Iamaleava thought of turning the narrative. The QB answered, “No, I don’t (think about the weather). I think it is you guys (media and fans thinking about it). But I will be ready to go play in whatever weather we get.” So it is obvious that the QB believes that it’s nothing but creating panic among the program. When it’s about the weather, the Vols are all good. After all, Iamaleava has some experience with making snowy fields his best friend.

Nico Iamaleava and some of his good snowy experiences

Well, Iamaleava’s performance in the cold weather has been a hot topic for the CFP game. Since he knows that well, he had some of the examples of successful feats handy. Now that his skills are being questioned, he couldn’t wait to go down memory lane. Do you remember that snowy 7-on-7 fame in Chicago?

“I played in snow one time when I was in Chicago, a couple of years ago with my seven-on-seven team, and that was probably the coldest I played in,” Iamaleava sounded all confident. Even though, “It was pretty hard to play in the snow, but it wasn’t too bad,” and he played pretty well, his team lost in the semifinals. If this isn’t enough of a warning for Day’s squad, here is another one. The Vols QB played one of his best games in cold conditions at Vanderbilt this season itself.

When the game kicked off, it was all sunny and 41 degrees. However, by the end of the game, the temperature dipped to as low as -30 degrees. Now that Nico Iamaleava has become prone to extremities, Ryan Day is guarding his fortress a lot tighter. The Buckeyes HC informed, “Being outside last week and practicing outside and acclimating to the weather, it makes a big difference.” That’s how the fear of cold is raising the heat for the upcoming face-off.