After Tennessee football’s strong win over Syracuse on Saturday, Vols head coach Josh Heupel was complimentary of starting quarterback Joey Aguilar. However, it’s tough to get a full view of the intricate details of his performance without turning on the film.
Since the win, Heupel has had the chance to digest what went down in Atlanta. On Monday, he met with the media and discussed what his takeaways were. His primary thoughts were seemingly the mental side of things.
“I thought he was good in his decision-making, communication,” Heupel said. “I said that after the football game. Super calm. I thought he used his feet at the right moments. Great demeanor throughout the course of the game. A lot to really like from it.”
Ultimately, Aguilar completed 16-of-28 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns. He did not throw an interception or get sacked. He also added 34 rushing yards to his stat line in six attempts.
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For Aguilar to be this comfortable in the offense with just a few months to get it down makes it even more impressive. Heupel admitted that’s something that he was at least curious to see how it played out. Any quarterback has a period of growth in picking up the offense, and Aguilar’s timeline was extremely accelerated.
His showing in game one was the culmination of what he did all fall camp. Heupel was impressed by his ability to grow day-to-day and retain everything that was thrown at him. With these circumstances, his control of the offense was ‘elite.’
“I think that’s always something that you know quarterbacks have to grow in, right? And for us not having much time on task on the practice field or in the meeting room with them, you want to see those things play out in real life,” Heupel said. “And he’s smart, his ability to retain information one day to the next when we were first doing installs with him. Our entire quarterback staff did a great job of helping them grow really quickly. And then once you get to training camp, his ability to recall and really not make the same mistake twice, understand the why behind things. It led you to believe that he was going to be able to execute at a really high level. I thought in game one, new offense, three months on task. He did an elite job of controlling and understanding what was going on around him.”
Aguilar’s next test will be on Saturday against FCS in-state foe ETSU. The game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET inside Neyland Stadium. It will air on ESPN+ and SECN+.
