It was never ideal for Tennessee football to have to replace Nico Iamaleava, but once Josh Heupel targeted UCLA Bruins transfer Joey Aguilar in the portal in response, the Vols’ starting quarterback for 2025 seemed pretty predictable. Heupel was clearly looking to avoid starting Jake Merklinger or George MacIntyre this year.
That predictability turned into a reality on Sunday, as Brent Hubbs of VolQuest reported that Aguilar would indeed be the starter. Aguilar, who spent the past two years playing for the Appalachian State Mountaineers before transferring to UCLA and then leaving because UCLA added Iamaleava, was given the job the day after UT’s second scrimmage.
Don’t think those two aren’t connected.
Since practices are closed, media members by and large couldn’t see the scrimmage, but based on reporting by Hubbs and Price, the offense took a huge leap forward. It’s not where it needs to be, but Aguilar was said to be much more settled in with the system, and this is only halfway through fall camp.
That made the decision much easier for Heupel and Joey Halzle. A red flag went up after the first scrimmage amid reports that MacIntyre had been outperforming everybody. However, we overlooked the fact that MacIntyre and Merklinger had a decided advantage over Aguilar.
Merklinger has been in the system since last year, MacIntyre has been in it since the spring. Aguilar had to pick it up in the fly in fall camp, and MacIntyre also has more raw talent than Aguilar. All of that meant that of course MacIntyre would know the system early on better than Aguilar.
However, as a fifth-year senior, the bet was that Aguilar would progress significantly faster than MacIntyre, and that seems to have been the case. After all, there’s learning the offensive system, which isn’t that hard to learn to begin with, and then there’s adjusting to the speed of the college level. Aguilar has a huge edge there.
Since we always said Heupel’s system takes about two weeks for any quarterback to learn anyway, it makes sense that Aguilar would separate himself after the second week of fall camp. Heupel and Halzle also need a veteran presence this year given all the new starters they have on offense.
Generally, the defense is supposed to be ahead of the offense early on in the spring. That was naturally going to be more pronounced this year and carry over to fall camp with the offense replacing nine starters and losing its quarterback in the summer. It would’ve been a huge concern for the defense if the offense didn’t have to play catch-up.
Aguilar’s veteran presence helps calm that chaos, though.
Of course, the politicking side is still there. If Heupel named a starter other than Aguilar, he would’ve had to stick with that guy going into next year when he wants an open competition among Merklinger, MacIntyre and incoming five-star Faizon Brandon. That’s not an ideal scenario.
What if Merklinger won the job due to his experience? MacIntyre has more talent, but Merklinger is only one year ahead of him, so by the time MacIntyre became the better quarterback, he’d have to sit behind Merklinger for two of his next three years on campus.
Heupel can’t afford that. As a result, Tennessee football naming Aguilar the starter was the easiest move possible. The Vols will have a different quarterback start the season for the sixth straight time, with Joe Milton III being the only signal-caller to start two different seasons in that era, albeit nonconsecutively.
