Turns out new Tennessee football quarterback Joey Aguilar has a little Nick Saban inside of him. More so on the quotes side after beating Syracuse 45-26 Saturday.
The former Alabama, LSU and Michigan State head coach popularized the phrase “rat poison.” But used it to describe the outside noise from the media to fans.
Aguilar walked into a place hearing lots of chatter. Stemming from the high-profile departure of Nico Iamaleava. Aguilar headed to Knoxville as his replacement via the College Football Transfer Portal.
Tennessee and Aguilar dealt with a population of the outside world writing off the Volunteers. Plus believing the distraction cloud from Iamaleava's departure would hover over the Vols. Aguilar silenced those critics by calling out the “rat poison” after the win.
“Like he said, all the outside noise is just rat poison,” Aguilar said. “We only focus about who’s in the building and the team we’ve got. So, we’ve got to go back, execute, dial in on everything we got. Everything outside is rat poison, and we got to focus on ourselves.”
How efficient did Joey Aguilar look in Tennessee rout of Syracuse?
The Vols still faced a formidable opponent out of the Atlantic Coast Conference. One that delivered a 10-win campaign one year ago.
The Orange gave Tennessee all they can handle. Even cutting a 17-0 lead to 10 momentarily. But Aguilar blew the game open with this deep shot:
dialed up a deep shot
📺 ABC
📲 https://t.co/ZKIJ43A754 pic.twitter.com/aMx3Q6S2eh— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) August 30, 2025
The former UCLA and Appalachian State QB showed his escapability t00. Sprinting to his left and firing this red zone touchdown late in the game:
playmakers making plays
📺 ABC
📲 https://t.co/ZKIJ43A754 pic.twitter.com/JgSV0vO2um— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) August 30, 2025
Aguilar flamed the Orange for 247 yards passing, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Meanwhile, his predecessor struggled immensely in his UCLA debut. Iamaleava finished 11-of-22 for 136 yards passing, 47 rushing yards and just one touchdown pass. But threw one interception and took a 43-10 beatdown against Utah.
