The season is just two games old but quarterback Joey Aguilar is off to a strong start in his Tennessee tenure. Aguilar has looked comfortable running Josh Heupel’s offense and has been accurate delivering the football in non conference wins over Syracuse and ETSU.
In fact, Aguilar has been one of the nation’s best quarterbacks to this point in the season according to Pro Football Focus. PFF’s given Aguilar a 92.9 overall grade to this point in the season including a 93.5 passing grade, a 55.7 rushing grade and a 47.7 fumble grade.
Aguilar’s overall grade is the second best amongst quarterbacks that have attempted 10 or more passes to this point in the season. Ironically, the only quarterback with a better grade than Aguilar is Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia who’s earned a 93.1 grade.
Through two games, Aguilar has completed 39-of-59 passes for 535 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions. He threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns while adding 34 yards on the ground in the season-opening win over Syracuse before throwing for 288 yards and two touchdowns in one half of action against ETSU.
For comparison’s sake, Nico Iamaleava had completed 38-of-51 passes for 525 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. Iamaleava’s stats were better in the Vols’ win over UTC a season ago while Aguilar’s stats were better against Syracuse than Iamaleava’s were against NC State.
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Aguilar’s high interception numbers last season at Appalachian State was a major question entering his lone campaign in Knoxville. But through two games, Aguilar has not yet thrown an interception and has only put a few passes in harms way.
The super senior has been apart of two fumbles this season though. Aguilar fumbled the ball with running back Star Thomas on the mesh point against Syracuse and then was unable to corral a bad snap against ETSU Saturday afternoon.
Aguilar and the rest of Tennessee football’s offense must clean up those mistake before beginning SEC play this week against Georgia. The Bulldogs again boast one of the SEC’s best defenses and will pose a much greater test than either Syracuse or ETSU have.
Kickoff between Tennessee and Georgia is at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium. ABC is broadcasting the game.
