Nico Iamaleava shines in Tennessee football spring game – even if he's not Peyton Manning | Toppmeyer

They paid $5 for a ticket to see an intrasquad scrimmage, and they were going to make their presence felt. Tennessee football fans who poured into Neyland Stadium by the tens of thousands on Saturday perked up when Nico Iamaleava trotted onto the field for the first time. He received one of the day’s louder ovations.

Iamaleava didn’t notice the noise.

“I was pretty locked in,” he said.

He looked it.

Officially, the five-star freshman quarterback will debut in the fall, but consider the spring game a soft opening, and Iamaleava put on a good enough a show that the buzz should only build for his grand opening.

Iamaleava zipped completions to receivers I’d never heard of. He nimbly scooted past pass rushers. He completed screens and slants and sideline throws. On a few plays, he looked like a freshman still learning the ropes, but, mostly, Tennessee’s ballyhooed blue-chipper played up to the hype.

His stat line – 8-of-16 passing for 112 yards – became marred by a couple of dropped passes.

The upshot: Iamaleava looked good, he needs to keep improving, and he wasn’t quite Peyton Manning.

I don’t mean that as hyperbole. It’s a statement of fact that Manning thrilled in his first scrimmage as a Tennessee freshman. Enrolling early was not en vogue then, so Manning didn’t make his much-anticipated arrival until the summer. In Manning’s first August scrimmage, he completed 10 of 12 passes for 122 yards.

I wasn’t there, but longtime Knox News columnist John Adams will tell you Manning’s performance was impressive and told of the career to come. Adams wrote after that 1994 scrimmage that Manning played “like a veteran,” although Manning found nits to pick, telling reporters that he “missed some throws.” He missed two.

Iamaleava missed a few more, but the 58,473 fans inside Neyland Stadium wouldn’t exit talking about his incompletions. They’re likelier to remember Iamaleava’s nifty scrambles, his flick up the sideline to fellow freshman Ethan Davis or his pinpoint over-the-middle toss to Davis into a tight window.

The five-star quarterback made five-star throws, none better than his precise 30-yard strike to Davis along the sideline after Iamaleava had rolled right out of the pocket.

“A beautiful, accurate throw,” coach Josh Heupel said.

TENNESSEE SPRING GAME ANALYSIS: Joe Milton, Nico Iamaleava and Gaston Moore dazzle against defense

JOSH HEUPEL: Tennessee football fans are 'absolute best in the country.'

Spring-game observations are best taken with several grains of salt. As Heupel put it: “It’s not real football.”

Defenders are not allowed to hit the quarterback. Any player nursing a boo-boo is withheld from action. The Vols scrimmaged Saturday without either of their top two running backs and without their top four receivers. Quarterbacks were completing passes to walk-ons.

That made it all the more encouraging that Joe Milton, Iamaleava, and third-string walk-on Gaston Moore combined to complete 25 of 40 passes.

Heupel’s offense is going to be fine. More than fine. But you knew that already. Heupel’s teams always score. Becoming a College Football Playoff contender would require defensive improvement, although Heupel also has a higher bar for his quarterbacks.

“There’s a lot of development that’s left inside of that room,” Heupel said.

Spoken like someone who played the position, but like Manning three decades ago, Heupel is nitpicking after a day of solid quarterbacking.

If you wandered into the stadium Saturday without knowing the depth chart, you could have believed any one of the three is bound to be UT’s starting quarterback.

That’s not the case. Tennessee does not have a quarterback controversy. Barring something unforeseen, the veteran Milton will be the starter in September after he finished last season as the Orange Bowl MVP. Nothing about Saturday hurt his standing. Milton was effective, even without his normal complement of weapons.

Iamaleava is preparing to be the backup, but last year showed how necessary that role is. Milton started the season’s final two games after Hendon Hooker’s season-ending knee injury.

In 1994, Manning went from third-string freshman to the starter by October after knee injuries to Jerry Colquitt and Todd Helton. Manning became a legend, and if you’d seen him debut in that August 1994 scrimmage, you probably weren’t surprised.

Iamaleava took a measured view of his first spring game.

“I did OK,” he said. “I think we could have scored more.”

Manning would approve of that assessment.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Nico Iamaleava shines in Tennessee spring game – albeit not Peyton Manning