Syracuse reveals the quarterback that the Tennessee defense will be chasing after in 2025 season opener
Syracuse wasted little time after the Vols named their starting QB
The Tennessee Volunteers have their guy for the 2025 season. Josh Heupel tabbed UCLA/App State transfer Joey Aguilar as the team’s starting quarterback on Sunday night. As my colleague Zach Ragan aptly pointed out, the relative quickness of that announcement from a normally tight-lipped Heupel is notable and should indicate that Aguilar went and took it relatively convincingly.
It appears as though Aguilar wasn’t the only starting QB in the game to be determined. On Monday morning, ESPN college football reporter Pete Thamel noted that Syracuse has named Notre Dame transfer Steve Angeli as the team’s starting quarterback against the Volunteers.
Thamel noted that the competition was a narrow one with LSU transfer Rickie Collins, but that Angeli got the nod.
In one respect, that’s a curious decision, or at least curious timing. Now, the Vols have two full weeks to put the lion’s share of their focus on Angeli, whereas taking the decision up to the week of the game would create a little bit of uncertainty for planning purposes. But there’s also the perspective of getting your team to buy into your guy well in advance of the game and starting to establish your guy as a leader of the team, develop that leadership role, and starting to build team chemistry.
Clearly, the Vols and Orange both believe in the latter, and they probably had an idea that Aguilar and Angeli were the most likely candidates in their respective quarterback battles.
Now, Tennessee can turn their attention to preparing for the former Irish signal caller, who backed up Riley Leonard on the Irish’s run to the national championship game last year. Angeli has a decent bit of experience, having appeared in 21 games with 1 start, and his accuracy with the football has been notable. He has a career completion percentage of 72.5% with 772 passing yards, 10 passing touchdowns, and 1 interception in his career. While not a two-way threat, he has sufficient mobility to avoid being a sitting duck in the pocket.
We’ll find out soon enough if the Vols’ defense is up to the challenge, as the game and Tennessee’s season officially gets underway next Saturday, August 30, at noon from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
