TJ Chapman
Lead Columnist, Editor
In one of the wildest stories of the end of the 2024 season through the Spring of 2025, Joey Aguilar went from Appalachian State, to UCLA, to Tennessee in the span of four months. When Aguilar transferred from App State to UCLA it was done for the senior to get closer to home to finish his college career.
However, on April 10, 2025, Tennessee Volunteers’ star quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, was rumored to want a renegotiation of his NIL deal with Tennessee or he would enter the transfer portal. The spring portal window was opening on Monday, April 16, 2025, and Tennessee balked at the idea of increasing Iamaleava’s NIL package.
Iamaleava announced on April 20th that he was transferring to UCLA, officially ending his tenure as quarterback at Tennessee. Depending on who you listen to, Iamaleava was either looking for more money in general or was looking to get closer to home and wanted a monster deal to stay in Knoxville.
When Iamaleava committed to UCLA that created a problem for Aguilar, who committed to UCLA on December 28, 2024. He spent the spring with UCLA, learning the offense and building relationships with the staff and his teammates. With Iamaleava committing to UCLA Aguilar understood he was not going to be the Bruins’ starting quarterback in 2025.
Aguilar then entered the transfer portal on April 21, 2025, and started a search for where he would get a legitimate shot at being a starter. And, wouldn’t you know, a Power 4 starting quarterback position just opened up, at Tennessee. On April 29, 2025, Aguilar made it official, committing to the Vols.
So, who is Tennessee getting with Aguilar as their new quarterback? Aguilar started his college career at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA. Aguilar appeared in 16 games for the Vikings completing 60.2% of his passes for 2,992 yards with 21 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He added 619 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
For 2023 Aguilar transferred to App State where he appeared in 25 games over two seasons, completing 60% of his passes for 6,760 yards with 56 touchdowns and 24 interceptions. On the ground Aguliar added 456 yards and five touchdowns.
The 2023 season was phenomenal for Aguilar as he set single-season App State records in multiple categories. The single-season records he set included: passing yards with 3,757, passing touchdowns with 33, total offense with 4,002 yards, 200-yard passing games with 13, pass attempts with 460 and completions with 293.
The 2024 season saw a dip in production for Aguilar as he finished with a low 55.9 % completion percentage, 3,003 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. His rushing stats dipped to 207 yards and two touchdowns.
Vols fans have to hope for 2023 Aguilar to appear in 2025 if Tennessee has hopes of making it back to the College Football Playoff. One benefit Aguilar will have at Tennessee that he did not have in 2024 at App State was a solid run game.
The ability to run the ball effectively will open up the passing game and should allow Aguilar to thrive. Having weapons like Mike Matthews, Chris Brazzell, II and Miles Kitselman should help with the transition to head coach Josh Heupel’s offense.
But Aguilar needs to take care of the football. The incompletions and turnovers need to be reined in if Aguilar and the Vols are going to be successful. The opponents Tennessee will face in 2025 will make Aguilar pay for inconsistencies in the passing game.
Heupel and Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle will need to get Aguilar back on the path he was on in 2023. Aguilar is a good deep ball passer, which is vital in Heupel’s offense. In Iamaleava’s lone season as a starter the deep pass was not as effective as in previous years.
The run game used by Tennessee opens up the ability to hit on deep passes. Iamaleava was unable to capitalize on those chances consistently. Aguiar has shown a consistent ability to complete the deep pass, which will be deadly in the Vols’ offense.
However, Aguilar has also been prone to fumbles and turnovers. While not all of the fumbles were turnovers, the difference in competition in the SEC as opposed to the Sun Belt may lead to more of those fumbles being losses for Tennessee. That must be addressed by Heupel and staff.
Aguilar needs to be more accurate in his throws as well. His completion percentage dipping to 55.9% in 2024 is concerning. Having a gun slinger’s mentality is not always a bad thing, but it becomes bad if you are not accurately hitting your receivers. This is something that Heupel and Halzle can work on with Aguilar.
Aguilar is an athletic quarterback, he can move through the pocket to evade pressure and create plays while on the move. Getting the ball down field will compliment Tennessee’s run game. A consistent deep passing game will be welcome by the Tennessee faithful.
The 2025 version of Joey Aguilar will be on display starting in August at Tennessee’s fall camp. His first game as a Vol will be on Saturday, August 30th at noon against the Syracuse Orange in Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA. Vol Nation hopes that version is more like the 2023 Joey Aguilar and not the 2024 version.
Photo Credit: TJ Chapman, College Football Backers
