Ever since Barry Odom hired him as offensive coordinator of the Missouri Tigers in 2016, Tennessee Football head coach Josh Heupel has developed a stellar track record of producing gaudy stats. His quarterbacks have typically been the biggest beneficiary of that system.
Heupel’s track record of actually picking the right quarterback, however, is a different story.
As a result, Tennessee Football fans should pump the brakes on UCLA Bruins transfer Joey Aguilar, who the Vols added after Nico Iamaleava transferred to UCLA in an effective trade. A gunslinger with a proven track record of production seems like a good fit for Heupel’s system, but the fact that Heupel is the one who found him makes him a concern.
Over the past nine years, Heupel has more often stumbled into the right quarterback than picked him. The most prominent example of that was obviously Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton III. Hooker was already on the roster when Heupel arrived, but he went out and picked Milton and then named him the starter over Hooker.
It became extremely obvious two games into the 2021 season that Hooker was the better quarterback, and Heupel ever deciding to go with Milton remains baffling to this day. However, that’s not the only time he has missed on a quarterback when looking for who to start.
In 2019, his second year with the UCF Knights, he signed Notre Dame Fighting Irish transfer Brandon Wimbush and chose to start him over Dillon Gabriel. Once again, two games in, Gabriel as a true freshman was clearly the better quarterback. Heupel did make the switch, but ever going with Wimbush to begin with was a red flag.
Obviously, then there’s the Iamaleava situation, and while that isn’t his fault, it has to count as a miss. He pushed Tennessee Football to open up the checkbook and take on the NCAA on his behalf, and Iamaleava ended it all by leaving after just one year as a starter.
Beyond just Heupel’s misses, his most successful quarterbacks are all people he didn’t sign. We mentioned Hooker, but Drew Lock was already at Mizzou when he got there, and McKenzie Milton had already directed UCF to an undefeated season when he arrived there in 2018.
Taking all this into account, Heupel’s track record with quarterbacks is officially a concern and worthy of calling into question. Are we sure Aguilar is even better than Jake Meklinger or George MacIntyre? This could end up being another miss for him, and he’s had quite a few in his career.
