According to On3’s Pete Nakos, the Tennessee Vols’ starting quarterback battle is down to two players.

“Tennessee’s competition seems to be a battle between Joey Aguilar and Jake Merklinger, per sources,” wrote Nakos this week. “True freshman George MacIntyre has been running with the third team to this point.”

Joey Aguilar is a transfer addition from UCLA who has two years of starting experience at Appalachian State.

Jake Merklinger, meanwhile, is a redshirt freshman that has a year of experience in Tennessee’s offense. Merklinger, though, has just nine pass attempts in the Vols’ offense under his belt.

(True freshman George MacIntyre could be the most talented of the group, but he still needs to add some weight to his frame.)

104.5 The Zone’s Ramon Foster, a former Vols offensive lineman who spent 11 seasons in the NFL, shared his thoughts on Tennessee’s quarterback situation on Ramon and Will on Thursday.

Foster said he’s “Team Merklinger”, but he thinks it will probably be Aguilar that wins the job.

“This falls in a category of who won it versus who you want, and it’s a hard decision to make,” said Foster. “I think if it’s Joey Aguilar, I view this situation as I think the coaches would prefer that to be the case. He’s got the experience. He’s a new transfer….and you got him for just the one year, too.

“And it also helps settle the conversation about next year. I think coaches are — I think they’re scared of decisions like that. As far as if it is Merklinger, when you look at the Jake Merklinger incorporation into this competition, his teammates, I feel like, like him a lot. I think he has the playmaker ability that you want in a quarterback, from what I saw in the spring game and what I also saw in one of those closed practices, that he can wet his whistle in a way that makes this decision very tough for the coaches. I’m Team Merklinger on this one, to be quite honest. But I view Joey Aguilar as probably the guy that’s going to go get it. I do. This is a hard decision for coaches. It’s a hard decision for this team when you’re thinking about the right now, because they’re not necessarily in a rebuild. Joey Aguilar, I feel like, satisfies the coaching staff more than Jake Merklinger at this point.”

Foster, thanks to his status as a VFL and also as part of the Vol Network, has more insight into this quarterback battle than most folks. He’s seen some things first-hand that media and fans haven’t, so it’s certainly interesting to hear his take on the battle.

For now, though, it doesn’t seem like Josh Heupel is in a hurry to name a starter. We’ll see in the coming weeks if it’s Merklinger or Aguilar who gets the call for Tennessee’s Week One matchup against Syracuse.

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