'Joey Aguilar is not the chosen one coming in' – Vols insider dishes on Tennessee's ongoing QB competition
There are plenty of folks who seem to believe that UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar is the favorite to win the Tennessee Vols' quarterback battle this fall. Aguilar is perceived to be the favorite by many in large part because of the significant edge he has in experience over redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman […]
There are plenty of folks who seem to believe that UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar is the favorite to win the Tennessee Vols' quarterback battle this fall.
Aguilar is perceived to be the favorite by many in large part because of the significant edge he has in experience over redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre (Aguilar passed for 6,750 in two seasons at Appalachian State while Merklinger has just nine career pass attempts).
But despite the edge in experience, Aguilar is not, as VolQuest's Brent Hubbs put it on Friday, the "chosen one" in this quarterback battle.
No one is.
It's a wide open competition.
Aguilar is, however, off to a good start with the Vols according to Hubbs.
"One of impressive things with [Aguilar] is that he's just come in and gone to work," said Hubbs on Friday during an appearance on 104.5 The Zone's Ramon and Will. "He's not forced himself (on teammates). He's not been, 'I'm the guy'. He understands he's got to go earn it. He's got to go earn people's respect. And so I think he's tried to do that, and I think he's doing a good job with that — just going to work in the film room, learning as much as [he] can."
"It changed this weekend when everybody got back in town. Now you're getting throwing sessions, and now we're going to see how competitive that room gets and how they handle everything. Because we've seen it where guys really work well together and everybody splits reps. And we've also seen it at times where one quarterback will lock another quarterback out of the room and won't let him in. There's a guy in the Hall of Fame that locked out a quarterback to help his stock and to help his opportunities. So we'll see. I mean, they're going to be competitive. I think how you handle it, how these guys go about it with their teammates, is going to be interesting. And how the receivers go about it, because the receivers are all trying to figure out, 'Who do I throw with?' And the reality is, right now, you better be throwing with everybody."
"Because Joey Aguilar is not the chosen one coming in," continued Hubbs. "He is the guy who is taking a roster spot that has the most experience, but it's not like he's the guy that you anointed a huge salary for that you're going to end up playing because of that. That's not how that room is right now. That room is pretty balanced, and I think it's gonna be fun to watch what happens over the course of the next few weeks, as those guys get to throwing and the returns sort of come back on all those guys. Joey has a live arm, he's got a quick release. I think there's a lot of things to like about where he's at. I think the biggest question is how much of the offense does he learn? How much carryover is there from App State? How much has he already picked up? How much can he continue to pick up here in the month of June."
It's definitely going to be interesting to see how this quarterback battle plays out. We have no idea who will emerge as the starter, or when Josh Heupel even plans to announce that there is a starter (knowing Heupel, it'll probably be the night before the first game of the season).
Thanks to this quarterback battle, it should be one of Tennessee's most compelling fall camps in decades.
