Every position matters in football, and everyone who has ever played or coached or even seriously watched the game knows that. But some positions matter more than others. Different positions in the NFL — and, in the NIL era, now-legally in college ball — are paid differently for a reason.

Nico Iamaleava can’t singlehandedly beat Ohio State in Saturday’s College Football Playoff opener, but the play of Tennessee’s touted redshirt freshman quarterback will be one of the most critical factors in any good or bad result.

The former five-star, everyone-wanted-him prospect from Long Beach arrived at Tennessee with tremendous fan fare, but those close to the 6-foot-6 Southern Californian have always understood him to be extremely low-key by nature. If left to his own devices, he’s often the quietest person in the room, but he knows quarterbacks have to speak up, and many in the program have seen him grow significantly from his days as a true freshman backup to a redshirt freshman starter.

Iamaleava might never have the loud, rah-rah vibes classically associated with the quarterback position, but Vols coach Josh Heupel made it quite clear Monday that he and everyone else in the program is comfortable with Iamaleava’s ability to lead Tennessee into its biggest football game in a generation — and a game that will be played in the loud, hostile Horseshoe of Ohio Stadium.

Heupel said after Tennessee’s Monday practice at Anderson Training Center that Iamaleava arrived in Knoxville “smart” enough to understand that leadership in a group is something that takes time, and that the quarterback has always excelled in one-on-one communication — a solid first step toward eventually becoming a leader.

“As a young player, everybody wants the quarterback to be the leader immediately,” Heupel said. “Smart, young quarterbacks understand that there’s a growth and an evolution to it. Nico’s been great in one-on-one situations from the time that he got here, communicating with wideouts. He grew into communicating and challenging the five guys in front of him [on the offensive line], but now you can feel as he’s started to play, you can feel his presence in everything that we’re doing every single day.”

Heupel — a former All-American, national champion and Heisman Trophy finalist as a quarterback at Oklahoma — has arguably a better understanding than most of his coaching peers regarding the responsibilities and pressure placed on the shoulders of starting quarterbacks at major college programs with rich histories and sky-high expectations. From his vantage point, Iamaleava has handled his business appropriately on and off the field.

The coach’s Monday comments dovetail neatly with the way others in the Tennessee program have consistently discussed Iamaleava on and off the record the past two seasons, at least anytime this writer has inquired. The word on Iamaleava has never strayed from the script, with those around the quarterback consistently describing him as someone who’s much more grounded than you’d suspect from anyone whose ability generates so much hype. He’s confident, of course, but more than anything he’s “cool” — or “Cali Cool,” as at least a couple of people in the program have suggested. They know what he’s about, and they like him. They also believe in him.

Iamaleava’s early-season play against lesser opponents took the hype train to an even higher level, and the balloon deflated a bit when Tennessee’s offense frustrated at times in SEC play. The quarterback’s play quietly — or relatively quietly — went back up a notch down the stretch, though. He’s thrown 12 touchdown passes and only one interception since since Oct. 19, and he’s consistently generated plays with his legs, as well.

Tennessee’s quarterback has played 17 games the past two seasons, and he’ll enter Saturday’s showdown in Columbus with solid career stats. He’s completed nearly two-thirds of his passes for 2,826 yards, 21 touchdowns and five interceptions, and he’s added nearly 400 yards and four more scores on the ground.

Beyond those numbers, though, Iamaleava has, in his own way, gradually evolved into a more central role as a leader — perhaps not in the way junior running back Dylan Sampson and senior defensive lineman Omari Thomas lead, but nonetheless a productive way.

Iamaleava walk into and out of stadiums with necklaces showcasing his Samoan heritage, but sometimes he’ll pair them with a cowboy hat if the rest of his teammates are wearing cowboy hats. It’s not traditional, but to those around him, it’s him being him while also reading the room and understanding his role. He said he wore that hat “for my QBs” — every other quarterback on the roster is from Tennessee, Georgia or the Carolinas — but many other position groups loved it.

This weekend’s forecast in Columbus looks more conducive to balaclavas than Tecovas, but whatever Iamaleava’s wearing, the Vols seem happy to follow him.

“Nico’s got a great understanding of, man, you’ve got to be with the guys,” Heupel said. “You’re not one of the guys when you’re the quarterback, but you’ve got to be with the guys. You see him at the hotel on Friday nights, he’s eating dinner with the offensive linemen, he’s with the defensive linemen. He does a great job of kind of getting out of his quarterback group, or just the offensive unit, and developing relationships with those guys. That’s a big part of leadership.

“Those guys having a relationship with you, understanding that you care about them, allows you to lead them.”