Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava goes viral for LeBron James celebration vs. Ohio State

Nico Iamaleava is clearly quite the showman.

The Tennessee quarterback Iamaleava went viral in the second quarter of his team’s College Football Playoff game against Ohio State on Saturday. Iamaleava took it into the end zone himself off a designed run on 2nd-and-goal and then popped up to do LeBron James’ famous “silencer” celebration.

NICO IAMALEAVA TAKES IT HIMSELF FOR SIX

Hit the LeBron 'Silencer' pic.twitter.com/KJmeNxPbXi

— ESPN (@espn) December 22, 2024

James debuted the celebration back when he was with the Miami Heat in the early 2010s. But Iamaleava’s version was surely very intentional since James is an Ohio native and known as a big fan of Ohio State. Saturday’s game was also played at Ohio Stadium.

Unfortunately for Iamaleava, the game was much tougher for him and the Volunteers other than that moment. They trailed by as many as 21 points in the first half, and Iamaleava also had to fight through a helmet-crack that he sustained in the first quarter.