Vols senior responds to question about how starting Nico Iamaleava against Vandy would affect the locker room

"I don't know. Honestly, I really don't know," said Warren when asked how starting Nico would affect the team's camaraderie. "I don't know how it would affects us. I don't know how it would affect Joe. I don't know how it would affect the coaches. I don't really know. And that's something that I guess we'd find out if it were to happen. And I don't know what the right move is. That's not my decision to make. I think that regardless of who's back there, and I've said this so many times, regardless of who's back there, you have to trust him. And you have to believe that he's going to be the guy to do it."

"So regardless, at the end of the day, we always will back Joe and we always will back Nico," added Warren. "And we always will back Gaston (Moore) if he's in the game. But these are our guys, right? These are the people that we go to work with every single day. So I really don't know how anyone would handle it. But I know that as of right now, it's Joe. And he will continue put his best foot forward and do what he can." 

That's an interesting response from Warren. He didn't completely shut down the idea of Nico starting against Vanderbilt. And he didn't immediately suggest it was a foolish debate. At the same time, Warren didn't seem eager to move on from Milton, either (it seems like Warren just wants to line up and play and it doesn't really matter who is under center). 

Based on the way Heupel has done things during his time at Tennessee, I wouldn't expect Nico to start against Vanderbilt. But based on the response from Warren -- who, by his own account, doesn't know what the right move in this situation would be -- it doesn't seem outlandish to think that there might be some debate inside of Tennessee's program about who should start against the Commodores.