This past weekend, we got the first look at both new Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar with the Vols and former UT quarterback Nico Iamaleava with his new team, UCLA. Former Florida head coach Steve Spurrier also got the chance to watch.
During an appearance on ‘Another Dooley Noted Podcast,’ Spurrier and host of the show, Pat Dooley, weighed in on both of the signal callers’ showings. Here is what they said.
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Spurrier: “Aguilar at Tennessee.”
Dooley: “Yeah, he had a good game.”
Spurrier: “Chris Doering has already said he’s better than Nico.”
Dooley: “Well, he was in the first game.”
Spurrier: “He was (on Saturday). Nico went to UCLA.”
Dooley: “I watched that game. I actually taped it to watch because it was on at 11 o’clock. I’m watching and I’m like, this is unbelievable how bad Iamaleava is. He just couldn’t do anything right.”
Spurrier: “He had some so-so games really at Tennessee. But this Aguilar kid seems to be a good teammate and so forth.”
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In Aguilar’s debut, he led Tennessee to a 45-26 win over Syracuse in Atlanta. He threw for 247 yards on 16-of-28 passing with three touchdowns and no interceptions. This included a 73-yard toss to Braylon Staley. He also ran for 34 yards on six attempts. He fumbled the mesh of a handoff with Star Thomas, as well.
For Iamaleava, his UCLA team fell short in a 43-10 defeat to Utah. He completed 11-of-22 passes for 136 yards with a touchdown and an interception. On 13 carries, he ran for 47 yards. He was sacked four times.
Next, Aguilar will lead the Vols in their home opener against ETSU on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN+/SECN+.
Iamaleava will head to UNLV to face former Florida coach Dan Mullen’s squad. Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. ET on CBSSN on Saturday.
4 Responses
This is one game. Use Georgia and alabama as a measuring stick
Then the Vols will know where they’re at.
We probably shouldn’t draw too many final conclusions about either QB after one game. However, my conclusion about Iamaleava is based on being a lifelong UT fan and watching every game of his. He struggles with accuracy on the intermediate and long passes. He’s decent on the shorter routes, but there won’t be many quick scores because he can’t target the longer routes. 2 other things he struggles with: going through progressions and going with a 2nd or 3rd options. And once he moves from the pocket, he also struggles making any passes on the run. Once he leaves the pocket, he’s a runner. Now, if his first options are there, and not a long pass, he can make plays short. If he has a solid running game and a great line, he can win. But he has no running backs at UCLA and a weak O-line. They’re in trouble and his career just took a major downturn. He won’t admit it, but Heupel made him look pretty good most of last season. UT’s running game kept him from having to make plays down field. He’s not gonna have those luxuries this season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see UCLA go at or around .500 this season and Nico to transfer or try to go to the NFL. (Where his prospects are falling fast)
Nothing surprising here. This is a direct reflection on coaching and how Heupel knows how to get his team ready and on the right track and Heupel wasn’t able to go hurry up as much as he’d like but he did it more than Nico was able to do so last year so that tells you something already that Joey just has more football intelligence than Nico.
I’ll trade Joey Aguilar for Nico Imaleavin any day of the week!!!!!!!