Former Vols QB Joey Aguilar is even more of a fan favorite in Knoxville after what he revealed at the NFL combine
Former Tennessee Vols quarterback Joey Aguilar is at the NFL scouting combine this week.
Shortly after the 2025 college football season wrapped up, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Tennessee Vols quarterback Joey Aguilar had surgery “to remove a benign tumor that has been pushing on his biceps tendon and labrum, causing weakness and pain”.
Rapoport reported that Aguilar kept the situation “quiet” during the season, but he didn’t share further details about the timing of the injury.
Aguilar passed for 3,565 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions for the Vols in 2025. He also rushed for 101 yards and four touchdowns.
Joey Aguilar opens up on the tumor and how it affected him at Tennessee
Aguilar was asked Friday at the NFL scouting combine about the tumor and how it impacted it him at Tennessee and when he first learned about it.
“I found it early in the season,” said Aguilar of the tumor. “But you know, if you’ve got one time to play at Tennessee, there’s no backing down. So I just played through it, put the team first, and carried on through the season.”
“Some games were better than others. But definitely, my arm was weaker going into a lot of games last year due to the amount of throwing in games and in practice — the overwork of the bicep and how much it was pressing on my bicep and my pec. I don’t have a percentage, but it definitely was hurting a lot.”
“Like I said, I had a benign tumor in my bicep and my shoulder,” added Aguilar when a reporter followed up later during the media session. “The tumor was pulling on my bicep and my pec, making the area super tight. And my symptoms, I would have bad aching. My arm would kind of thump like a heartbeat. And a lot of, like, hot, burning, type of feelings in my bicep — because it was just wrapped around my bicep. So throwing a lot, activating that bicep, activating that shoulder, made it super hard to throw, and it made it super aggravated. So I had to take some time to, obviously, get some rehab and let my arm rest throughout the week.”
Aguilar wasn’t perfect in 2025, but he was pretty damn good considering he didn’t arrive in Knoxville until May, just a few months before the start of the season.
His year was even more impressive when you consider how much pain he was dealing with on a weekly basis, not to mention the fact that he wasn’t getting as many reps as he could’ve been getting during practice due to resting his arm.
Aguilar’s one season on Rocky Top didn’t end with a big celebration, but it was one that Vols fans will never forget because of the way he embraced Tennessee and left it all on the field for a bunch of teammates that he didn’t even know a year ago at this time.