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This year, Tennessee football was one of the bigger off-season stories after Nico Iamaleava's NIL dispute. Iamaleava left, and the Volunteers quickly brought in Joey Aguilar from Appalachian State and UCLA, so the two programs swapped quarterbacks after Iamaleava joined the Bruins. It is not a foregone conclusion that Aguilar is the starter for Tennessee football, but it is leaning that way.
National college football and NFL reporter for CBS Sports, Matt Zenitz, released a notebook on all the nationwide quarterback competitions and what he hears regarding who is leading each competition. The Tennessee competition is between Joey Aguilar and redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger. Zenitz said both quarterbacks have split reps with the first team, but all indications are that Aguilar holds the slight lead.
He elaborated, “This remains a competition between UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar and redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger. Those two split reps with the first-team offense during the Vols' scrimmage last weekend. However, it seems like Aguilar may have a slight edge in this battle.”
Aguilar is from California, so it felt like a natural fit at UCLA before Nico Iamaleava became available in the transfer portal. Last season, Aguilar had 3,003 passing yards and 23 passing touchdowns, while also having 14 interceptions. He also had a 55.9% completion percentage. In two seasons with the Mountaineers, Aguilar had 6,760 passing yards and 56 passing touchdowns.
One thing that jumps out about Aguilar is that he does have talent, but it's raw and needs to be developed more. The good news is that he joins a quarterback-friendly offense under Josh Heupel, and his issues should get cleaned up due to that.
Tennessee football had a scrimmage last week, and the first thing Heupel talked about was the quarterback competition, but he was non-committal.
“I’m not naming a starter today, but all three of those guys have shown some excellent characteristics of doing some special things with the ball (and) also managing the game, eliminating negatives,” Heupel said.
Josh Heupel elaborated even more on what Aguilar showed in the scrimmage and what he has looked like in camp.
“I like overall what (Aguilar) has done,” Heupel said. “There’s still more for him within the structure and the details of (operating the offense).”
It is also worth noting that, according to Zenitz, five-star true freshman George MacIntyre has shown flashes of greatness, but is not a factor in this competition.
Josh Heupel and Tennessee football were put in a bad spot when Nico Iamaleava left, but they rebounded nicely with Joey Aguilar. They do not have the ceiling they did with Iamaleava, but Aguilar is talented enough to steady the ship for this offense.
