Tennessee soccer has not formally named its beginning quarterback. With simply over two weeks till the season kicks off, Josh Heupel has declined to select his sign caller throughout his media availabilities up to now. Nonetheless, a nationwide reporter has reported that there could also be one quarterback creating some separation.
On3’s Pete Nakos, who was on the middle of the Nico Iamaleava NIL negotiation reports that resulted in Iamaleava departing for UCLA within the spring, picks Bruins switch Joey Aguilar because the frontrunner. On3’s tweet of the report mentioned Tennessee is ‘trending towards’ naming Aguilar because the starter.
The subsequent time Heupel will meet with the media will likely be Friday morning, following the Vols’ second scrimmage of fall camp. When he most just lately spoke final Saturday, he praised Aguilar, in addition to redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre.
“I’m not naming a starter at this time, however all three of these guys have proven some actually good traits of performing some particular issues with the ball,” Heupel said. “Additionally managing the sport, eliminating negatives. And there’s some issues that every of them collectively as a gaggle, we received to get higher at. And that’s at all times the character of this level in coaching camp.”
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Aguilar joined Tennessee within the spring with the expectation of competing with Merklinger and MacIntyre for the beginning quarterback job. Preliminary expectations have been that Iamaleava would slide again into his beginning position, however reported NIL negotiations led to a fallout between the perimeters. In consequence, Iamaleava left in a messy switch state of affairs and ended up at UCLA.
With Aguilar transferring from App State to UCLA within the preliminary switch window, he noticed his projected beginning job with the Bruins usurped from him. He would enter the spring window, as nicely, and discover his solution to Knoxville to interchange Iamaleava.
Now, after spending spring camp studying a brand new offense, he’s being requested to do it throughout. He brings essentially the most expertise to the room of sign callers, however doesn’t have a spring session underneath his belt with Heupel and firm.
Aguilar went into the latest 2024 season with excessive expectations with the Mountaineers. After a dominant displaying the 12 months prior, he threw for 3,003 yards on a 56% completion price. He tossed 23 touchdowns however turned the ball over with 14 interceptions in simply 11 video games. On the bottom, he added 207 yards and two touchdowns on 59 makes an attempt.
In 2023, Aguilar torched the App State document books. He set new program-best marks for a single season in passing yards (3,757), passing touchdowns (33), whole offense (4,002), 200-yard passing video games (13), go completions (293) and go makes an attempt (460).
That 12 months earned him Solar Belt Newcomer of the Yr and Remedy Bowl MVP. He steered App State to a 9-5 document, Solar Belt Championship Recreation look and bowl win over Miami (Ohio).
He started his profession on the junior school stage, taking part in at Diablo Valley for 2 seasons simply outdoors San Francisco. Previous to that, he performed for 2 years at Freedom Excessive Faculty in Antioch, California. He earned First-team All-Bay 6 in each seasons there.
