Does Tennessee football have a top-five SEC quarterback in Joey Aguilar? According to ESPN’s Bill Connelly, the answer is yes heading into Week 3. Looking at who he would most want as his quarterback if there were a crucial game this Saturday, he ranked Aguilar at No. 5 in the conference.
This placed him behind No. 1 Beau Pribula of Missouri, No. 2 John Mateer of Oklahoma, No. 3 Taylen Green of Arkansas and No. 4 Diego Pavia of Vanderbilt. Behind Aguilar sat Garrett Nussmeier of LSU, Arch Manning of Texas, Gunner Stockton of Georgia, Ty Simpson of Alabama and Marcel Reed of Texas A&M in that order.
This meant that notable names such as Florida’s DJ Lagway, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers and Ole Miss’ Austin Simmons were outside the top 10.
“The App State/UCLA transfer has now topped 7,000 career passing yards, and he’s been on cruise control early into his Vols tenure: 66% completion rate, 13.7 yards per completion, no picks and two easy wins,” Connelly wrote.
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Through a full game against Syracuse and the first half against ETSU, Aguilar has looked sharp. While he’s yet to face a defense as good as he’ll see against Georgia this Saturday, you can’t ask for a much better start.
So far, Aguilar has produced 535 passing yards on a 66.1% completion percentage to go with five touchdowns. He’s yet to throw an interception, either, but has connected on touchdowns from 73 and 53 yards out.
On the ground, Aguilar didn’t record a rush attempt against ETSU. In the opener against Syracuse, he scampered for 34 yards on six carries. He is yet to be sacked, as well.
“He handled the game with low decision-making for the most part really well,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said after the ETSU win. “Some things that he’ll learn from just being able to control the game with some checks that he can be better in. But all in all, really strong performance from him again.”
This week’s test will take place against Georgia at home on Saturday. With College GameDay in attendance and ‘Checker Neyland’ in effect, kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET and will air on ABC.
