Tennessee football held its second fall scrimmage Friday morning at Neyland Stadium as the season-opener against Syracuse nears. It was the Vols final scrimmage of the preseason and while camp is not yet over, it is winding down and Tennessee will begin Syracuse prep this week.
The Vols have addressed a number of questions in fall camp but the most important one remains who will start at quarterback in the season opener.
With a strong showing in Friday’s scrimmage, all signs point to Joey Aguilar being Tennessee’s starting signal caller. Josh Heupel wasn’t ready to name a starter during his Friday’s press conference but he did offer praise about a key question surrounding Aguilar entering the season.
“I thought he handled himself extremely well,” Heupel said. “That’s today, but I think he’s got better, from day one up until today’s scrimmage. Really every single day. Comfort and control. He’s handled himself extremely well during our night walkthroughs, which is mental focus, mental sweat. And because of that, he’s extremely comfortable in what we’re doing right now.”
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Transferring to Tennessee after spring practice, Aguilar had a short amount of time to learn Heupel’s offense and get acquainted with the intricacies of running the offense. While there is certainly an element of coach-speak in Heupel’s answer, the fact that Aguilar has checked those boxes is important.
Aguilar was the outside favorite to win the starting job due to his college football starting experience that Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre simply don’t have. The senior quarterback’s disadvantage was his lack of experience in Tennessee’s offense specifically. If he is truly “extremely comfortable” in the Vols’ offense then that mitigates many of those concerns.
Aguilar was a two-year starter at Appalachian State and was much more effective in 2023 than 2024. In 2023, Aguilar completed 64% of his passes for 3,757 yards, 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. A season later, Aguilar completed just 56% of his passes for 3,003 yards, 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
Still, it now feels more like “when” not “if” Heupel names Aguilar his starting quarterback as the Vols hope he performs more like he did in 2023.
Tennessee’s fifth-year head coach meets with the media Tuesday and then will again on Monday of game week. Back in 2021, Heupel didn’t name Joe Milton Tennessee’s starting quarterback until the Monday before the Thursday night season opener against Bowling Green.
