Joey Aguilar set to arrive on Tennessee campus next week

Time to get to work.

Joey Aguilar’s time on Rocky Top is set to begin on Monday, according to VolQuest’s Austin Price. The former Appalachian State quarterback had some academic timing hurdles to clear before he could get to Knoxville, but those are now taken care of.

Game on.

Aguilar spent the spring period with UCLA, learning a new offense for the Bruins. However, Nico Iamaleava threw a wrench into those plans when he surprisingly hit the transfer portal. The former five-star prospect didn’t have many options, but UCLA ended up being one. The addition there pushed out Aguilar, who ended up taking Iamaleava’s roster spot at Tennessee.

The 6-3, 220 pound quarterback now enters a true battle with two younger players. Jake Merklinger is heading into year two in the Josh Heupel offense as a redshirt freshman, while George MacIntyre began in the system back in December. Neither player has any significant playing time at the college level.

Aguilar spent two seasons as the starter at App State. He threw for 3,757 yards and 33 touchdowns back in 2023. He followed that up with 3,003 yards and 23 touchdowns last season. Double-digit interceptions (10 and 14) have plagued Aguilar throughout his career — something he’ll have to clean up to win the starting job this fall.

Aguilar now begins the daunting task of learning the offense without taking part in the spring session. He won’t be able to take part in any sort of official organized team activity until fall camp, which won’t begin until late summer.

A new quarterback, new faces at running back, an almost entirely new receiving core along with four new starters up front on the offensive line? Tennessee is going to look quite a bit different when they hit the field in Atlanta against Syracuse in the opener.

Now begins a critical stretch here for Aguilar and the entire offense. How far can they come with such a short amount of time to work with?