Through two games, Tennessee football has done as much as realistically possible to positively answer the preseason questions about its offense. The Vols’ offense floundered at times and was rarely better than average a season ago, marking a second straight pedestrian year.
After replacing Nico Iamaleava with Joey Aguilar, all eyes were on Tennessee’s quarterback play and offense entering the 2025 season. Through two games, the Vols’ offense is performing well with lopsided wins over Syracuse and ETSU.
However, it’s wise to tap the breaks on the offensive hype train. Tennessee’s schedule through two games last season and two games this season is shockingly similar. They faced a below average ACC team and an instate FCS foe both years.
Tennessee scored 117 points in its wins over Syracuse and ETSU this season. The Vols scored 120 points in wins over UTC and NC State a season ago. Both teams scored a defensive touchdown in their blowout wins over their ACC opponent.
The Vols have recorded 1,227 total yards while twice turning the ball over through their first two games this season. Last season, Tennessee totaled 1,178 total yards and turned the ball over three times in the first two games.
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What about the quarterbacks? Joey Aguilar has completed 39-of-59 passes for 535 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions. He’s added 34 rushing yards and a fumble on six total carries. Nico Iamaleava completed 38-of-51 passes for 525 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions while rushing for 71 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.
Aguilar did play better against the ACC opponent while Iamaleava put up bigger numbers in his half of football against the FCS opponent.
The stats for both the quarterbacks and Tennessee’s offense as a whole are very similar through two games this season compared to two games last year.
There are reasons to believe that Tennessee’s offense will be better this season than they ended up a year ago. Aguilar looks much more comfortable and confident in his decision making running Tennessee’s offense while the offensive line does look better than they did a season ago.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth pumping the brakes on declaring Tennessee’s offense back. The challenge gets far more difficult for Tennessee this week when they open up SEC play against Georgia and Neyland Stadium. And while that may be the toughest task of the offense’s season, the rest of SEC play will be more difficult than the first two games have been.
