On3 Sports’ Josh Pate put things in simple terms before the Mississippi State game last Saturday.
“This is Joey on the road,” Pate said. “It could be the name of a documentary. Joey Aguilar here, first road start. You never know – MeeMaw used to tell me, you never know what you’ve got in a college team until they go out on the road. You don’t know about a college football player until they’ve played on the road.”
After Tennessee’s overtime over Mississippi State, we now know what Aguilar is made of. And it looks a lot like what it did in the four games leading up to last weekend, too.
Aguilar led Tennessee to a 41-34 overtime win over the Bulldogs in Starkville last weekend. His finest hour came on the final scoring drive of regulation, where he orchestrated a 13-play, 75-yard game-tying scoring drive that took the clock down from eight minutes to two minutes in the fourth quarter. Aguilar threw for 54 yards on that drive alone, completing a key fourth-down conversion and a third-down conversion that was backed up due to a penalty. He also ran in the game-tying touchdown from six yards out.
Perhaps it’s one of those “Heisman Moments” later on in the season. But, for now, it’s the standout drive of the season.
Joey Aguilar reached an impressive milestone in Saturday’s win. He threw for 335 yards, which is the highest total that a Tennessee quarterback has thrown for in a true road game under Josh Heupel. There are some other close totals, but Aguilar’s output is now the highest – and he did it in his first true road start.
Former Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker has some big numbers on that list. In 2021, he threw for 282 yards at Alabama and 316 yards at Kentucky. In 2022, Hooker threw for 325 yards at Pitt and 247 yards at South Carolina. Former Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III never topped 300 on the road in 2023, but he did throw for 287 at Florida that season. Nico Iamaleava’s best road output was 257 yards at Vanderbilt in 2024.
Aguilar technically didn’t even need overtime to pad his stats, either. Tennessee’s lone play in the bonus time was a 25-yard touchdown run from DeSean Bishop. Simply put, Aguilar racked up his total during regulation and regulation alone.
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“It showed up at the end of the game,” Tennessee HC Josh Heupel said after the MSU game about Aguilar’s poise. “Big drive, big conversions, showed itself there. There’s some things, early, middle, third quarter that he would like to have back and we’d like to have back. But the fact that he just kept competing is a really positive sign. One of the things that we love about him.”
Aguilar has brought explosiveness and consistency back to the Tennessee offense. It’s opened up a route for the Vols to return to the SEC’s highest scoring team through the first five weeks of the season.
Another impressive benchmark that Aguilar hit this season was when he threw for 371 yards in the overtime loss to Georgia. While it’s not a direct comparison because of the differences on both sides each year, no other Tennessee quarterback had been close to that number against the Bulldogs in the Heupel era. Hooker threw for 244 in 2021 and 195 in 2022, Milton threw for 147 in 2023, and Iamaleava threw for 167 in 2024.
Aguilar still has room to grow this season, but he’s proven to be a dynamic signal caller for the Volunteers – and just what the offense needed.
“When you go back and watch film and see there’s still so much more than we can do better at all around, and starting with me, just makes it exciting,” Aguilar said on Wednesday during the Vols’ bye week. “We’ve been explosive, but we can be more explosive than what we have been if everybody just dials in and gets into the details, starting with me.”
Hat tip to former Rocky Top Insider writer Reed Carringer for the stat:
Joey Aguilar threw for more yards on the road (335) than any QB in the Heupel Era.
— Reed Carringer (@ReedCarringer) September 28, 2025
