From Appalachian State to UCLA — to arriving in Knoxville and starting with a blank slate back in May — it’s been a whirlwind of a year for Joey Aguilar. It wasn’t really how anyone drew it up, but that’s modern college football for you.
Aguilar hit the ground running after finishing up some academics in the spring, learning the playbook and getting to know his new teammates. That work all paid off this week when the senior quarterback was named Tennessee’s starting quarterback by Josh Heupel.
“I was
super excited,” Aguilar told reporters on Wednesday. “Coming out here and being the starting quarterback of this program is nothing but excitement. And that’s all I can say. I’m just super excited.”
Aguilar beat out Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre for the gig who had more experience in Heupel’s system. Aguilar’s experience over the last two seasons as a starter eventually won out, however. A strong scrimmage performance last weekend solidified the decision for the coaching staff.
“It was a lot coming in such a short amount of time, but I grinded out the days being in here early morning, late nights, and would just go out there, watch film, talk to the coaches and just try to get the game plans going and get the concept of the offense down,” Aguilar said. “It took a while, but I got it down. I was able to go out there and perform in the scrimmages and stuff like that.”
Heupel mentioned how comfortable Aguilar seemed to be in the offense during last Friday’s scrimmage. It’s quite the change for Aguilar, who got his first live taste of Heupel’s tempo to open fall camp.
“Definitely felt more comfortable,” Aguilar said of his development throughout camp. “Going out there and running it completely live was different, running a practice is like kind of different than going to scrimmage and game-time speed. So definitely got a better grasp of it the second week of camp. I was in there spending more time in film and trying to get all the keys, details of plays and certain reads and the specifics like that.
“I would say the only thing that I really had to adjust to was just the tempo of the offense. I was, somewhat in 2023, I wouldn’t say tempo as this, but we were like pretty on the ball, just not as fast. So just getting used to getting the signal and lining up and going through my progressions was just the adjustment I had to make.”
Aguilar spent two seasons as the starter for Appalachian State before hitting the portal and ending up at UCLA. He’s an aggressive passer, as evidenced by his 56-24 TD:INT ratio. The 6-3, 225 pound quarterback isn’t afraid to push the ball down the field, which might just end up being a breath of fresh air after the last couple of seasons of Tennessee’s passing attack.
Aguilar remains a bit of a wildcard here, but maybe even more so than him are his wide receivers. How quickly all of these new faces find chemistry will go a long way towards determining Tennessee’s 2025 outcome.