Forgive me if I was a bit late to the party. I’m skeptical by nature. That, however, was the old Dave, the one who didn’t believe that a talented player like former Tennessee football quarterback Nico Iamaleava could be adequately replaced by a former All-Sun Belt standout. Something about that didn’t just jive. Now, it does.
Vols quarterback Joey Aguilar is an upgrade over Iamaleava for three key reasons. The most standout reason is he’s not a distraction to his team. We’ll get to that one in a bit. Let’s talk football before that.
Aguilar is simply a better football player for two primary reasons. First, he isn’t swayed from looking downfield by pressure, even when that pressure is at his feet and could undercut him at any point. That’s mental toughness. Such toughness – and belief in his teammates – was evident numerous times against Syracuse when the Vols ran roughshod over the Orange 45-26 last week.
With ETSU on the schedule this week, Aguilar should grow even more comfortable in the pocket with more snaps on his resume. He’s going to continue to get better.
Again, from a football standpoint, Aguilar is also better than Iamaleava because, simply put, he’s a better deep-ball passer. That was evident on a 73-yard touchdown pass to Chris Brazzell II on Saturday. The pass may have been the best deep ball thrown by a Tennessee football quarterback since former Vol Hendon Hooker headed up the offense.
Don’t underestimate the importance of that. Opposing defenses weren’t scared of the deep ball in recent years. Former UT quarterback Joe Milton III could throw the ball a mile but couldn’t hit his intended receiver more often times than not.
Iamaleava didn’t have an accuracy problem as much as he had a hesitation problem. That was evident in his first start for UCLA on Saturday. Unlike Aguilar, Iamaleava dropped his eyes, checked down to another receiver and thought about running far too early in a 43-10 loss to Utah.
All of the above is football talk and, quite likely, things that Iamaleava probably could have overcome had he been more trusting of his teammates who were trying to support him and his coaches who were trying to lead him. That was never going to happen because of the influences around him, and it will likely undermine his career at some point. He was a distraction at Tennessee, and that will likely continue in Los Angeles or the NFL.
The past weekend’s games give me even more confidence in Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel. Yes, even more than what I had in 2022, when the Vols had one of the top offenses in the nation.
Hooker wasn’t a special talent by NFL standards. Aguilar probably won’t be either. However, that doesn’t matter. Heupel has proven he can win without a quarterback that wows recruiting analysts that often don’t truly understand the intricacies of the game.
Therefore, I’m still skeptical. However, I’m skeptical of recruiting analysts more than ever. Trading Iamaleava for Aguilar seemed a bit crazy at the time. It makes perfect sense now.
