Tennessee football found its quarterback in the transfer portal earlier this week landing former Appalachian State and UCLA signal caller Joey Aguilar.
Aguilar played his last two seasons at Appalachian State before transferring to UCLA in December. After the Bruins landed Nico Iamaleava out of the transfer portal, Aguilar entered the portal and quickly committed to Josh Heupel and his staff. But there is an early snag in the process.
With Aguilar looking to win Tennessee’s starting quarterback job this fall, getting him on campus to begin learning the Vols’ offense and building a connection with their receivers is incredibly important.
But UCLA is on a quarters system academically meaning its spring quarter doesn’t end until June. Class end on Friday, June 6 and Friday, June 13 is the final day of exams. That means that Aguilar theoretically won’t get to Knoxville until mid June after Tennessee’s first semester of summer school begins.
Maybe Aguilar could get to Tennessee as soon as possible and finish his classes online, but that doesn’t seem overly likely. The super senior quarterback can begin learning Tennessee’s offense and playbook immediately while he’s still in Los Angeles, but that isn’t nearly as effective as being in Tennessee’s football facility and learning from his coaches.
Aguilar completed 56% of his passes for 3,003 yards, 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He’s also a decent runner, adding 207 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns during the 2024 season.
While his stats last season were pretty pedestrian, Aguilar’s stats were much better during the 2023 season. The Antioch, California native completed 63.7% of his passes for 3,757 yards, 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions during his first season at Appalachian State. He added 249 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns.
The super senior quarterback will compete with redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger for Tennessee football’s tarting quarterback job entering next season.
