This Friday, Tennessee football will take another significant step in gaining clarity on its quarterback position for the 2026 season. As Joey Aguilar fights for eligibility, the preliminary injunction will be on Friday, Feb. 13, in a Knox County Chancery Court, KnoxNews Adam Sparks reported.
As we await an update on Aguilar’s efforts, college football pundit Jesse Simonton weighed in on his Substack on the longterm effect this could have on UT. While he makes it clear that he wouldn’t classify Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel on the hot seat, he is curious how it will affect things past this upcoming year.
His thoughts boil down to the outlook on the 2026 season with or without Aguilar. If Tennessee rolls with a young quarterback, he sees the already difficult schedule as a bit more daunting. For a program that is ‘playoffs or bust’, another 8-4 season could make things interesting afterward.
“Tennessee is looking at either starting the guy who led the SEC in passing in 2025 or turning to a young buck with zero career starts against a schedule that features Texas, Auburn, Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M,” Simonton wrote.
“So now here were are. Awaiting a decision (from) a local judge that could alter Heupel’s longterm standing at Tennessee.”
You can read Simonton’s full thoughts on the subject here.
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Aguilar’s lawsuit against the NCAA fights back against rules that count junior college seasons against a player’s NCAA eligibility.
A judge in a similar Diego Pavia case originally sided with the Vanderbilt quarterback last winter, enacting a temporary restraining order against the NCAA. In response, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to student-athletes who previously played in junior college and ran out of eligibility during the 2024-25 athletic year.
That ruling gave Aguilar an extra-year of eligibility and eventually led to him landing at Tennessee. However, Aguilar played two seasons at Diablo Valley Community College and would have one more year of eligibility remaining if the courts again sided with him and other student-athletes vs. the NCAA.
