Tennessee names Joey Aguilar its starting quarterback

Tennessee will open the 2025 college football season in 13 days with Joey Aguilar as its starting quarterback. The Vols made the announcement via social media on Sunday night with the team coming out of preseason camp, during which it was clear the veteran transfer was pulling ahead of redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger. The two-year starter at Appalachian State transferred to Tennessee via UCLA in May, so he made quick work to learn the offense and his new teammates and performed as he needed to in order to sew up the starting job.

The Vols landed Aguilar in April after splitting up with returning starter Nico Iamaleava just before the end of spring practice. Iamaleava, who helped guide Tennessee to its first College Football Playoff appearance in 2024, committed to UCLA, which had brought in Aguilar during the winter transfer window. Aguilar was in the portal and quickly matched with Tennessee after Josh Heupel & Co. struck out in their attempts to lure a more established Power 4 starter.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Aguilar threw for 6,760 yards with 56 touchdowns and 24 interceptions in two seasons at Appalachian State, where he started 24 games and helped the Mountaineers reach the Sun Belt Conference Championship Game as the Newcomer of the Year in the league in 2023.

Tennessee made the announcement via X and Instagram with a picture of Aguilar and the caption “At the helm.” He will make his 25th career start when the 24th-ranked Vols face Syracuse in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on August 30. Aguilar has been on quite a journey to reach this point having spent parts of three years at two different junior colleges and beginning the seasons at his last two stops – Diablo Valley Community College in his native California and then Appalachian State – as the backup for stepping into the starting role.

For the Vols, though, he’s won the job from the start.

Aguilar made a quick impression on his new Tennessee teammates this summer and streamlined his process of learning another new offense with long nights in the Anderson Training Center after he first got to campus in May.

After the team came back for the start of summer classes and workouts, Aguilar spearheaded the quarterbacks taking the offensive line and wide receivers out for dinners to bond, something he did regularly at Appalachian State.

“It’s the connection that we have,” Aguilar said. “I’ve got to build trust in them. They’ve got to build trust in me. I came in a short time. I didn’t have a spring with all these guys, so try to hop on that connection and start building a brotherhood quick once they all got back from break, because when I got here, I think everybody was on break. App State, it was kind of like a tradition to go take my O-line out to eat, so I kind of wanted to bring that over here, bring the quarterbacks with us and just go out and really hang out with the guys and just build a connection more outside of football as well.”

Aguilar joined a quarterback room that included Merklinger and talented freshman George MacIntyre following Iamaleava’s departure.

“It’s been great,” he said before camp started. “Me, Jake, George, and even Mason (Phillips), the freshman that came here not too long ago, just attack the weight room and we attack the field. If I’ve got a question, I ask them, they help me out, and then vice versa. But at the end of the day, we’re all trying to be better as a player and just be better for each other for whoever’s out there on the field.”

Aguilar, who set the Appalachian State single-season records for passing yards (3,757), passing touchdowns (33), completions (293), attempts (460) and total offense (4,002), needed just one phone call from Tennessee after entering the portal to jump at the chance to play in an offense that has sent Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton III into the NFL and helped the Vols win 37 games in four seasons under Heupel.

“I’m comfortable,” he said. “In 2023 App State, we were, I wouldn’t say as fast as here, but we had a higher-paced offense. I’m excited to go out there and just be in that offense and put up some good numbers.”

Heupel has touted his experience as an advantage and saw a skill set with which he could work, despite Aguilar throwing 24 interceptions over the past two seasons – Tennessee’s quarterbacks under Heupel have combined for just 18 with no starting throwing more than five picks in a season.

“I think a lot of that comes from what we can do here scheme-wise, getting him ready to go as far as fundamentals, eye placement, getting involved in our scheme, because it’s never just a plug-and-play with an older guy like that,” said offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle. “A lot of people think you just drop a guy in, (and) he’s played, so he knows how to do it. It’s all going to be, how does he go through this offense? How does he adjust to our fundamentals, the way we teach it, the way we use our eyes, the way we know our protections?”

Aguilar was able to go through the offense well during preseason camp with Heupel praising him after Friday’s second scrimmage for improving over the course of two weeks of practices and showing good command of the offense he now will lead into the new season.

“Once I got here – once I committed, honestly – (Tennessee fans) were everywhere,” Aguilar said. “All I see is Joey Aguilar getting tagged everywhere, comments everywhere. At first I was like, dang, that’s crazy, like they love their players. It was awesome, though. It was like coming from App State, I got that a little bit. UCLA, not so much, Then coming to this program, the community that loves this program.

“What they’ll get out of me is just I’m going to go out there and just give it everything I got every play. I’m not going to back down for anything. Super excited to be here.”

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