Longtime SEC personality Paul Finebaum isn’t afraid to make his opinions on the sport known, especially considering the platform he has.
The Tennessee alum always has his ear to the ground on the latest rumblings in the SEC football world, which has also been true with the Vols’ quarterback saga that unfolded a few months ago.
Tennessee parted ways with former quarterback Nico Iamaleava right before the Orange & White game last spring and found transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar in the process. Aguilar spent two seasons at App State before transferring to UCLA this past winter. But with Iamaleava joining the Bruins after his divorce from Tennessee, the Vols targeted and matched up with Aguilar in the transfer portal.
Since his departure from Tennessee, many analysts and fans have been critical of Iamaleava’s 2024 season on Rocky Top. The former starter threw just nine total touchdowns in eight SEC games, with four of those coming against Vanderbilt in the regular season finale. Iamaleava finished ninth in the conference in QBR, eighth in yards, ninth in passing yards, and seventh in passing touchdowns.
During a recent episode of The Paul Finebaum Show, the well-known host made a simple, strong statement on his early belief for the upcoming season.
“I don’t think it would be hard to have a better season than Nico (Iamaleava),” Finebaum said. “Frankly, I’ll take the over on Joey having a better season than Nico (did in 2024).”
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While he’s been turnover-prone at times during his two seasons at App State, Aguilar has also shown to be a gunslinger with the football. Compared to Iamaleava’s 19 total touchdowns in 2024, Aguilar threw 33 touchdowns in 2023 and 23 touchdowns in 2024. Iamaleava passed for 2,616 yards with the Vols last season while Aguilar threw for more than 3,000 yards in each of his last two seasons, topping out at 3,757 yards during the Mountaineers’ 2023 campaign.
The starting job isn’t Aguilar’s at this moment, and Josh Heupel will almost certainly be vocal that Tennessee will allow a quarterback battle to play out this fall, which also includes rising redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre. But Aguilar’s two years of experience and 6,760 total passing yards do make him the potential frontrunner at this point in the offseason.
“(Aguilar) has been the consummate teammate, has done everything that you could ever want walking in the door, basically in mid-May like he did,” Volquest’s Austin Price said of the Vols’ new QB on the Josh & Swain Show last week. “(He) has been ever present, constantly in the building, trying to throw to teammates. Just trying to blend and mesh be a part of it. So he’s done everything that he can do to this point. Ultimately, it comes down to how quickly can you learn the offense, and how do you perform once they start throwing you in there with live bullets come August?”
Though unexpected as of a few months ago, Tennessee will have a quarterback battle play out in Knoxville for just the second time in the Josh Heupel era when training camp starts this fall. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for complete Tennessee football coverage in the next few months, starting with SEC Media Days in July and fall camp in August.
2 Responses
I think everything will be fine in Knoxville this season players can tell where ur heart is and Nicos was in his pocket book I’ve watched a lot of football in my day and he wasn’t worth 4 million dollars!!!!
Goodness gracious – a quarterback battle looms ! This is childish in my view, get all in with Aguilar or risk shooting yourself in the foot.