Typically in college football runaway wins, head coaches wish to give extended action to younger, more inexperienced players. This both rewards the players for their hard work and allows the coaching staff to what they have in terms of talent on the roster. 

Head coach Josh Heupel made no exception on Saturday during Tennessee’s 59-3 blowout win over UConn.

Here are five of those young players made their impacts felt during play.

Quarterback Nico Iamaleava

The highly-touted freshman played all of the third quarter against the Huskies. He went 5-for-9 on the day for 86 yards. Iamaleava also carried the ball one time for 25 yards.

The California native threw for his first career touchdown midway through the frame. He hit tight end McCallan Castles across the middle for a 19-yard score on what initially appeared to be a quarterback draw.

Head coach Josh Heupel said Iamaleava commanded the offensive attack at a high level when he was in the ball game.

“I thought he handled all parts of the game really well for the most part,” Heupel said. “There’s a couple of learning opportunities for him. I thought he was timely using his feet, accurate with the football for the most part. There’s a couple things that he would want back, really solid performance from him.”

Running back Cameron Seldon

Freshman running back Cameron Seldon has seen action in all nine of Tennessee’s games this season. However, most have been on special teams. Coming into action, he had two kickoff returns for 21 yards, as well as three rushes for five yards.

Saturday marked the best game in the backfield for the first-year Vol, as he received double the amount of carries of his season total in the contest. His six carries for 35 yards were good for six yards per carry. 

Tight end Ethan Davis

The Vols’ passing attack saw 12 different targets catch a pass against the Huskies. One of the ones to record his first reception was Ethan Davis. Davis totaled two catches for 33 yards — one from Iamaleava and the other from Gaston Moore.

“Ethan Davis did a really nice job in the middle of the football field when he got the opportunity,” Heupel said. “A couple of things just in communication that he can clean up, but as a young guy, kind of anticipate some of that happening. But feel really good about the performance that he had in the run game and in the pass game too.”

Coming into play, the Atlanta product had only seen playing time in the season-opening win against Virginia, totaling five snaps. However, the blue-chip tight end played the majority of the second half on Homecoming.

Defensive back Rickey Gibson III

Gibson tallied his first career tackle in last week’s win at Kentucky but saw his first extended action against Connecticut. 

Throughout the afternoon, the cornerback recorded four tackles, one of them for a loss of yardage. He also impressed in coverage, although he did not register any statistics in the coverage category.

Kicker Josh Turbyville

The homegrown specialist found his way onto the box score for the first time this season. Turbyville made both of his kicks on the day, one extra point as well as a 33-yard field goal, both coming in the fourth quarter.

The redshirt freshman had primarily been used as a kickoff specialist through the first eight games of the season, where he registered 41 touchbacks on the year.