Tennessee football was riddled with injuries, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, during its 2025 season. But until NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport’s report in early January, almost no one knew that quarterback Joey Aguilar was playing with a benign tumor.
Rapoport reported on Jan. 2 that Aguilar had undergone surgery to remove the benign tumor that was “pushing on his biceps tendon and labrum, causing weakness and pain.” But there was still very little information about the situation.
Perhaps the biggest question was, when did Aguilar and Tennessee discover the tumor? And subsequently, how much of the season did Aguilar play with the tumor? Meeting with the media at the NFL combine this week in Indianapolis, Aguilar provided a little more clarity to the situation while specifying that the tumor was in his shoulder.
“I found it early in the season,” Aguilar said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “If you’ve got one time to play at Tennessee, there’s no backing down. I just played through it. Put the team first and carried on through the season.”
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Aguilar started the 2026 season strong. He threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns in the season-opener against Syracuse. The transfer quarterback’s best game of the season came two weeks later against Georgia when he threw for 371 yards and totaled five touchdowns in the overtime loss.
But Aguilar slowly got worse as the season progressed. Theoretically, the benign tumor could have been the reason why. However, the tumor would have weakened Aguilar’s arm strength while the veteran quarterback’s decision making was his biggest issue.
Over the course of the season, Aguilar completed 272-of-404 passes for 3,565 yards, 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Aguilar threw four of his 10 interceptions in November.
The former Appalachian State transfer sued the NCAA earlier this offseason, seeking an extra year of college eligibility. But the courts denied Aguilar’s request for a preliminary injunction, forcing him to move on to professional football.
Tennessee now enters an offseason with a quarterback battle between redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and true freshman Faizon Brandon.
