Tennessee football is one practice in to fall practice and still a week and a half away from its first preseason scrimmage. There will be eyes on Tennessee’s quarterbacks all camp but we’re still multiple days away from the Vols being full pads and live bullets starting to fly.
What does Tennessee’s quarterback competition look like early in fall camp? What does head coach Josh Heupel want to see from his signal callers in that time?
“Constant growth. Don’t make the same mistake twice,” Heupel said Wednesday. “You got to continue to learn from everything. That’s all on the field. And during the course of practice, quarterbacks mastering what we’re doing offensively, that’s controlling run game, pass game, the checks that we have in and all forms of it. There’s a lot that’s on their plate. So communication, then your fundamentals, which is preceded by your eyes, and then deliver an accurate ball. So all those things are going to go into it.”
Heupel called the quarterback competition an open one between Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre. But it appears to be a two-way battle between Aguilar and Merklinger. The two split first team reps during the open portion of Wednesday’s practice.
Both have major questions entering the 2025 season. Aguilar didn’t arrive in Knoxville until May and was behind the eight ball from the jump learning Tennessee’s unique offensive system.
Tennessee’s coaches have been complimentary of how Aguilar has learned the offense but doing it on the practice field is a different challenge and an area he needs to progress early in fall camp.
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“Getting involved in our scheme because it’s never just a plug and play with an older guy like that,” Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said. “A lot of people think you just drop a guy in, he’s played so he knows how to do it. It’s all going to be how does he go through this offense? How does he adjust to our fundamental? The way teach it, the way we use our eyes, the way we know our protections and his ability to dive into that and his want to to dive into that has been awesome.”
Merklinger has a full year and a spring practice in Tennessee’s offense, so he doesn’t face the same level of learning curve that Aguilar does. But Merklinger is also a redshirt freshman. He’s still very green when it comes to college football.
That inexperience will be a question around Merklinger for a while and won’t be resolved in the next few weeks. But every bit of practice experience is significant for the young signal caller.
“He’s been here for one year. Like it’s just reps and reps,” Halzle said. “When you’re playing against a Tim Banks defense, you’re seeing every structure of every front of every background of every coverage. So it’s a really good learning tool for our guys. It’s like swinging with a weighted bat, playing against our defense all fall camp. That you see everything under the sun that you could imagine.”
Aguilar and Merklinger have unique skillsets and varying advantages entering this quarterback battle. The battle won’t be decided in the next week but for one to truly seize the job and run with it, they must put together a strong start to camp.
“Someone’s got to take it. Someone’s got to step up and take it, prove it,” Halzle said. “Obviously as soon as you can get to that guy and let your guys start rallying behind one person and understanding their skill set and tailoring the offense to them, the better. But we can’t be in a rush to do that because if it doesn’t present itself organically, then you’re just going to be trying to put a square piece in a round hole.”
