Tennessee Football received major news and clarity about the future of its quarterbook room on Friday afternoon with the ruling that Joey Aguilar’s request for a preliminary injunction has been denied by a Knox County judge. The denial ultimately means that Aguilar has indeed exhausted his eligibility and will not suit up for the Volunteers during the 2026 season.
So what does that mean for Tennessee moving forward? It means that the Vols will be going through a true quarterback battle for a second straight season after Aguilar won the job last year. It also means that Tennessee will have its fifth different starting quarterback in the last five years, with Hendon Hooker in 2022, Joe Milton III in 2023, Nico Iamaleava in 2024, and Joey Aguilar in 2024.
Tennessee isn’t left out in a wasteland with an empty quarterback room, though. While the Vols’ current group of quarterbacks are lacking collective experience, especially in SEC play, there’s still talent amongst the Vols’ two highly-touted quarterbacks from the recruiting trail over the past two years.
On3’s J.D. PicKell dove into his initial thoughts on the situation on the On3 YouTube channel on Friday afternoon.
“Now for Tennessee, here’s where the plot gets a little bit thick,” PicKell said. “Not having Joey Aguilar means you’ve got three quarterbacks in the room. Ryan Staub, Faizon Brandon, high-profile freshman, and then a high-profile freshman from a year ago, George MacIntyre. You’ve got some talent in the room. Like, that’s the good news here. As much as it sucks to not have the SEC’s leading passer from a year ago returning to your quarterback room, if you’re Tennessee, you don’t feel like you don’t have someone in that room that can still go do some good things for you. Like, there’s still guys in that room that will be very good college football players, whoever it is between MacIntyre, Faizon Brandon, even Ryan Staub. Like, he doesn’t get me super excited about what he could be for Tennessee in 2026, but he’s played some college football. If nothing else, he’s going to push that room and push those young bucks to be better.”
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Some Tennessee fans will obviously be discouraged by the news on Friday. Aguilar did lead Tennessee to the conference’s top offense during his first and only season with the Vols. The Vols fanbase will now retract back into a wait-and-see mode throughout the offseason, but PicKell does give his belief for why there should still be optimism amongst the unknown.
“I also think now when you look at what Josh Heupel’s done with the quarterback position, there should be just some faith in what he is and who he is,” PicKell said. “… So, the point in all this I’m trying to make is even though you have no choice, there should still be some security of well, ‘hey, our head coach knows what he’s doing. He knows what he’s doing and he still has some talented dudes behind center in that room.'”
Tennessee will begin spring training camp on March 16, which will be the first look at all three quarterbacks in action. As a true freshman, MacIntyre only threw for nine passes in a very limited third-string role for the Volunteers. Staub, meanwhile, only had limited activity in four games during his time at Colorado last season. And while he’s a very highly-touted five-star signee, Brandon hasn’t played a snap of college football yet.
Much like last season with Aguilar, MacIntyre, and Jake Merklinger, it appears that Tennessee will have a true quarterback battle on its hands over the next six months.
“I know it sucks, I know it’s uncomfortable to have to go with a less proven slash unproven at all commodity and one of those guys in your room, still talented, still a quarterback whisperer in Josh Heupel,” PicKell said.
Check out J.D. PicKell’s full reaction video for On3 Sports below:
