Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar has been one of the best stories in the college football landscape this season. A senior quarterback who transferred from App State to UCLA to Tennessee within a matter of months, Aguilar now has Tennessee on the cusp of a nine-win regular season if the Vols can handle business against Vanderbilt this weekend in Knoxville.
During Tennessee’s 31-11 win against Florida last Saturday in Gainesville, Aguilar joined an exclusive club in UT program history. He became just the fifth quarterback to throw for 3,000+ yards in a single season while wearing orange and white, joining standout players such as Peyton Manning, Erik Ainge, Tyler Bray, and Hendon Hooker. Aguilar surpassed Hooker’s 2022 passing number during the win over the Gators, and will likely pass Manning’s 1996 total this weekend against the Commodores.
While Aguilar had a bit of the turnover bug late in the conference season, his explosiveness throwing the football has rejuvenated the Tennessee offense. The Vols are the only program in the nation that can boast a trio of 700-yard wide receivers, due to a combination of their skills at the position and Aguilar’s ability to throw the football. Under Aguilar, Tennessee has the No. 1 offense in the SEC and the No. 1 passing attack in the conference.
Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea is well aware of the challenges that his team will face against an Aguilar offense this Saturday in Knoxville.
“He’s a really skilled passer,” Lea said on Monday. “I think he’s been able to put the ball on the money. When receivers get behind the defense, I think he throws a good ball on the perimeter. And their ability to win kind of two-on-two matchups out there. So again, the horizontal stretch of the formation creates a dilemma.”
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While speaking to the Vanderbilt media, Lea unpacked his coaching thoughts on the difficulties of defending Tennessee’s pass game with Aguilar’s proven ability to throw the deep ball.
“Because if you’re playing split safeties, I don’t know how detailed you want me to get into this, but sometimes I get going like we’re all football coaches here,” Lea said. “But when you’re playing split safety, you have overhang players and sometimes those overhang players are in conflict between playing the run and playing the pass. And when they get pulled in the run game, you’re then playing two receivers with two DBs. So a corner and a safety versus two receivers, one of which is gonna catch the ball, one of which is gonna block. Sometimes your safety is 12-14 yards deep.”
Tennessee has had some truly explosive passing seasons since Josh Heupel’s arrival on Rocky Top. But regardless of the output, Heupel has continuously stated that the pass game is set up from the run game. It’s a complementary process, which goes into what Lea said during his statement.
Lea spent several minutes breaking down Tennessee’s offense, the challenges it presents, and what the Commodores need to do to find success defending it this upcoming weekend. For more on what Lea said during his opening press conference this week, click here.
No. 19 Tennessee will host No. 14 Vanderbilt at 3:30 p.m. ET this Saturday afternoon in Neyland Stadium. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee news, notes, and coverage before the regular season finale.
