No. 24 Tennessee has selected its new beginning quarterback. Joey Aguilar, who transferred in from UCLA following the departure of Nico Iamaleava, will lead the offense onto the sphere when the Vols open their season towards Syracuse in Atlanta on Aug. 30, this system introduced.

Aguilar transferred from Appalachian State to UCLA within the winter after which from UCLA to Tennessee within the spring as soon as Iamaleava dedicated to play for the Bruins. Aguilar beat out redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre for the job. Regardless of being a current addition to the roster, Aguilar was thought of to be the favourite as a result of his expertise as a multi-year starter at App State. 

Tennessee infamously misplaced Iamaleava, the previous five-star recruit, to the switch portal after he didn’t renegotiate a brand new NIL deal, main the Lengthy Seashore native to enroll at UCLA. Iamaleava will now get replaced by the quarterback as soon as seen because the front-runner to win the UCLA job. 

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Cody Nagel

Aguilar started his school profession at Metropolis Faculty of San Francisco and Diablo Valley earlier than discovering his technique to App State. He was ranked because the No. 85 quarterback within the switch portal this offseason. The 24-year-old signal-caller went 13-11 in 24 begins made at App State over two seasons, and threw for six,760 yards, 56 touchdowns and 24 interceptions. These 6,760 passing yards over the previous two seasons are probably the most by any returning FBS participant, however his 31 turnovers during the last two years are additionally tied for many within the FBS.

This previous season, the Vols received double-digit video games for the second time within the final three years, and made the new-look Faculty Soccer Playoff as a No. 9 seed. Nonetheless, they have been blown out by the eventual nationwide champion Ohio State Buckeyes, 42-17, within the first spherical. Josh Heupel’s offense has ranked within the high 20 in whole yards per recreation in every of his 4 seasons in Knoxville, together with when the Vols registered an FBS-leading 525.5 yards per recreation again in 2022. Now, he has tasked Aguilar with main this group.