Joey Aguilar did an incredible job last season of stepping into a tough role as Tennessee’s starting quarterback despite not going through spring practice with the program.

Aguilar passed for 3,565 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions during his lone season on Rocky Top. The California native parlayed a solid season at Tennessee into an undrafted free agent deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

But as good as Aguilar was for the Vols last season, his ceiling as a player is nowhere near what the ceiling is for true freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon, who was named Tennessee’s starting quarterback this week.

Brandon is a dynamic athlete with elite arm talent who is a proven winner (back-to-back state titles in high school). He’s a player who has the talent to be the top pick in the NFL Draft one day.

There will be some growing pains as Brandon adjusts to life in the SEC, but he raises the ceiling of Tennessee’s offense significantly from what we saw last season with Aguilar under center.

And it’s not just because of his physical talent.

Faizon Brandon should help Tennessee be better in the RPO game

One area where Tennessee’s offense could’ve been better last season was the decision-making in the RPO (run-pass option) game.

Aguilar often defaulted to passing the ball when the better play would’ve been to run the ball.

Tennessee’s loss to Oklahoma last season was specifically a game where the Vols should’ve run the ball more instead of going with the pass option.

In Neyland tonight. From the stands it looks like Oklahoma is playing soft and giving Tennessee everything underneath.

Vols haven’t taken it.

— Reed Carringer (@ReedCarringer) November 2, 2025

“One, they’re good up front against the run,” said Vols head coach Josh Heupel after Tennessee’s loss to Oklahoma. “Two, there’s some times where we had some runs, and we’re throwing perimeter tags when we shouldn’t. So a combination of all those things, and then late the game plays out the way that it does.”

That was a particularly frustrating instance for Heupel because Oklahoma was actually willing to concede some yards on the ground and in the middle of the field.

“We played with a light box for a good part of the night — we were willing to give up some things underneath,” said Sooners head coach Brent Venables.

Aguilar told reporters after the game that Oklahoma did a good job of disguising coverages.

“They were trying to disguise coverage, and they did a good job on that,” said Aguilar.

VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs said on Tuesday that he thinks the RPO game will be much improved with Brandon under center.

“I think they’ll run the RPO game just like they ran the RPO game last year,” said Hubbs on WNML’s SportsTalk. “I think the difference is Faizon Brandon is okay with the ‘R’ part of the RPO, and Joey Aguilar was not a big fan of it. I think if you go back and look at the tape from last year, they called a lot of RPO stuff, but Joey was much more comfortable throwing out of those looks.

“So I think they’ll run it like they always run it. I think that Faizon will be more comfortable running it with his legs and using his legs. And again, I think the bigger thing is the escapability (of Brandon). There will be some designed stuff, but they’re not going to give him by design 15 carries a game or anything like that. I think it’s the ability to negate negative plays, and what I mean by that is a little bit of what Hendon Hooker did. Everybody remembers all the long runs from Hendon Hooker, but people don’t remember the three-yard gain, which avoided a six-yard sack. So you’re plus nine on that play. Those types of plays to stay ahead of the sticks. I think, particularly early in this season for Faizon, the legs will certainly be a factor.”

Brandon confirmed on Tuesday while meeting with reporters that he has the flexibility to change the play at the line based on the look he gets.

I think the RPO stuff is something that Brandon will continue to get better at as the season goes along. It’s not going to be perfect in Week 1, but he’ll grow in that area.

I also think it’s clear that not only is Brandon a huge upgrade talent-wise, but he should run the offense more efficiently than what we saw last season — even as a true freshman.