Often, I’m the guy that tries to temper expectations.

Whether that’s discussing a team on the rise or explaining to my wife what she signed up for, I pride myself on not setting the bar too high. When I get too excited about something — 2018 Mississippi State, 2019 Malik Willis at Auburn, 2023 Devin Leary at Kentucky, etc. — it doesn’t end well.

For the sake of Tennessee fans, I’m trying to contain my excitement about the 2024 Nico Iamaleava-led offense. But man, it’s a battle.

Yeah, the Citrus Bowl is part of that. How could it not be? Against the No. 4 scoring defense in America, Iamaleava scored 4 touchdowns (3 rushing, 1 passing) and hung more points in the Hawkeyes than anybody has since CJ Stroud-led Ohio State did in Oct. 2022.

(Relax, Connor. Do NOT say that Iamaleava is about to be the second coming of Stroud. Deeeeeep breath, deeeeeep breath …)

Instead of saying that Iamaleava needs to get a spot on his mantle ready for his Heisman — shoutout to my guy Joe Moorhead — I’ll leave it at this. The decisiveness we saw from Iamaleava both as a runner and as a passer operating Josh Heupel’s offense was all sorts of promising. The returns, while early, bode well for a significant offensive improvement in 2024.

That’s not saying that much. In 2023, we saw the most boring Josh Heupel offense since he became a head coach in 2018. It was the first group to finish outside the top 8 in scoring. The Joe Milton-led version of Tennessee’s offense was limited, which wasn’t what many expected after an offseason that was spent talking about 90-yard throws. Ironic, it was, that Milton ranked No. 61 in FBS with 32 passes of 20 yards. Milton’s lone game with 300 passing yards vs. Power 5 competition came against Vandy, and the best Power 5 win in the regular season was at 7-win Kentucky.

Was all of that on Milton? I don’t think that’s fair. He had a first-time play-caller in Joey Halzle, and the receiver position wasn’t what it was in 2022 when the Vols had the nation’s No. 1 offense. It wasn’t just that Jalin Hyatt and Cedric Tillman were off to the NFL. The midseason injury to Bru McCoy was devastating. It was nasty to watch, and it was troubling to think about that potentially being the last play of his college career.

But then it wasn’t.

I ranked McCoy’s return as the SEC’s most important non-quarterback decision to turn down the NFL Draft. Why? It’s not like he’s some 1,000-yard receiver like Ole Miss’ Tre Harris (he had 985 but you get what I’m saying).

For a young quarterback, having a safety blanket like McCoy will be invaluable. Iamaleava’s strength is pushing the football outside the hashes. McCoy’s strength is catching footballs outside the hashes and fighting for extra yardage. He’s also an excellent, willing blocker in the passing game (via @CHANNEL_TN_).

In Heupel’s scheme, we know that high-percentage throws like that will be there. It’s underrated how valuable it is to have blockers like McCoy on the outside.

That’s different than the role of Squirrel White, who operates almost exclusively out of the slot. After a slow start, White picked it up a bit after McCoy went down and finished No. 8 in the SEC in receiving. Luther Burden III and the aforementioned Harris are the only SEC returners who had more receiving yards than White in 2023.

Can White’s role increase with better quarterback play? Absolutely. Let’s not forget that even as a backup in 2022, the only player in the entire SEC who had more 40-yard catches than White was Hyatt. That was when we got small doses of Milton’s deep-ball prowess, which made it that much more tantalizing heading into 2023.

With Iamaleava, the deep-ball accuracy should be closer to what we saw with Hendon Hooker. As we’ve seen, arm strength vs. deep-ball accuracy are wildly different things. Hooker thrived with the latter. The expectation, in a Heupel offense, is that Iamaleava will do the same. That’s saying a lot about a guy with 45 career pass attempts, 0 of which were completions that went for 30 yards.

But spend enough time watching him and you’ll see that Iamaleava can make any throw. That’s off-platform, too, which was something that his predecessor struggled with. Iamaleava’s mobility should be an asset, both to extend plays in the passing game and to move the chains as a runner.

Speaking of that ground attack, one might look at Tennessee’s loss of Jaylen Wright and assume that replacing a 1,000-yard rusher who averaged 7 yards per carry will be a challenge. Those skeptics probably haven’t seen a ton of Dylan Sampson.

In their defense, he only had 86 carries in the regular season. It wasn’t until Wright opted out of the bowl game that we really saw Sampson get a full workload. Naturally, he turned 20 carries into 133 yards against an Iowa defense that was No. 4 in America against the run entering the Citrus Bowl. That was the most rushing yards that the Hawkeyes surrendered to anyone all season.

I’d say that bodes well for the future of the Tennessee ground game, which has averaged at least 199 rushing yards/game in the first 3 seasons of the Heupel era. Oh, and Heupel’s 3 UCF’s rushing attacks averaged between 211-265 yards/game.

Let’s also not forget that in addition to those promising returners, the Vols also added Tulane leading receiver Chris Brazzell II and top-ranked transfer portal tight end Holden Staes, who’ll add another red-zone threat.

There are weapons galore. Notice that I didn’t say anything yet about the intriguing, but underwhelming Oregon transfer Dont’e Thornton, nor did I put expectations on 5-star 2024 signee Mike Matthews. Those guys, while talented, don’t need to blossom into stars for Tennessee to have one of the nation’s best offenses, though it would help. That’s neither an expectation nor an impossibility.

The expectation is that the Vols will get back to having an offense that’s worth the price of admission. Even if Iamaleava has some growing pains early in the year, I’ll buy even more stock.

It’s not impossible to suggest that Tennessee could boast the nation’s top offense. And before you tell me about Georgia, remember that the Vols accomplished that feat in 2022 even after UGA stymied them in Athens. That’s on the table, especially if it’s a 2023 LSU situation where the secondary is a major liability that turns every game into a shootout.

There’s all sorts of potential on Rocky Top. We’re in the beginning of an offseason that’ll be full of reminders of that. And I suppose I didn’t live up to my promise by declaring Tennessee has “No. 1 offense in America upside” in the first full week of the offseason.

Oh well. Looks like I’m not winning that battle.