In April of 2025, Tennessee football was in a frenzy. It’s returning starting quarterback and former five-star recruit, Nico Iamaleva, had entered the transfer portal, leaving Josh Heupel and the Vols with limited options at the most important position on the field.
As a result, UT went to the spring transfer portal window to see if it could find its next quarterback through that route. This reportedly included floating around NIL offers to quarterbacks in other conferences to try to find an experienced arm. Ultimately, Tennessee landed on Joey Aguilar, who was in the portal out of UCLA because that’s where Iamaleava transferred to himself.
While it ended up working out statistically for Tennessee’s offense and Aguilar, the Vols were seemingly after some more proven options first. This included Illinois’ quarterback, Luke Altmyer. During an appearance on Pardon My Take this week, Illini head coach Bret Bielema gave insight into how much more money he claims the Vols were offering than Illinois was.
“Luke was offered almost two-and-a-half more million dollars than we were paying him to leave us,” Bielema said. “And then we end up playing that team in a bowl game and beating them.”
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Ultimately, Altmyer turned down the pay day and stayed at Illinois. Ironically, he then squared off with Tennessee in the Music City Bowl.
The Illini won the game in Nashville, 30-28, thanks to a walk-off field goal on a drive Altmyer orchestrated. He would finish the game completing 20-of-33 passes for 196 yards, one touchdown and no picks. He also ran 10 times for 54 yards and a score.
On the other side, Aguilar had his weakest game statistically as a Vol. He finished completing 14-of-18 passes for 121 yards, no touchdowns and no picks. He also ran in for a touchdown. However, it was revealed after the season that Aguilar was playing with a tumor in his throwing shoulder that made things tougher as the season progressed.
Now, Altmyer is battling for a job with the Lions, and Aguilar is with the Jaguars in the NFL. Both went undrafted.
