'What if Tennessee and Joey Aguilar has some type of resurgence like Joe Burrow?' – Greg McElroy reveals if he thinks Vols can win the SEC
Do the Tennessee Vols have a legitimate chance to win the SEC in 2025? Technically speaking, every team in the SEC has a chance, as of now, to win the conference this fall. Realistically, though, there are quite a few teams in the SEC that simply don't have the talent to truly make a run […]
Do the Tennessee Vols have a legitimate chance to win the SEC in 2025?
Technically speaking, every team in the SEC has a chance, as of now, to win the conference this fall.
Realistically, though, there are quite a few teams in the SEC that simply don't have the talent to truly make a run at winning the SEC.
Former Alabama quarterback turned college football analyst Greg McElroy, in fact, believes there are just eight teams that actually have a chance to win the conference this season. And he has Tennessee as one of those eight teams (the Vols, however, are near the bottom of those eight teams for McElroy).
"What about Tennessee," said McElroy recently on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. "What if Tennessee and (quarterback) Joey Aguilar has some type of resurgence like Joe Burrow? [Maybe it's a situation where], hey, he just wasn't in the right system, and now he's in the right system and it's very quarterback friendly and he's all of a sudden great? He's played a ton of football. He's started college football games for four years. Maybe they have a couple of breakout stars at wide receiver. Maybe on the offensive line, the young players step right in and they're amazing from day one. Is it possible? Sure it's possible. I don't think it's necessarily likely, but I think it's possible."
"Of the teams that I listed that I think could do it, Tennessee would be near the bottom for me this year," continued McElroy. "Just a lot of turnover from last year, and that's okay — sometimes that can be good. But they were pretty dang good last year. I think they're going to be okay on defense. I like their personnel, assuming their secondary, and their corners in particular, can get healthy. If Jermod McCoy is back (from a torn ACL) to being who he was at corner, I think they have a real chance. But I think defensively, they're going to have to be a lot more complementary."
"So looking at kind of the rest of the league, Tennessee would be near the bottom (of the teams that McElroy thinks can win the SEC)," added McElroy. "Auburn, frankly, this year I would have them kind of near the bottom of the teams that I think could actually do it. But still, pretty good. A pretty good spot to be in (for Tennessee and Auburn)."
I don't think Joey Aguilar, who transferred from UCLA to Tennessee in the wake of Nico Iamaleava's departure from Rocky Top earlier this spring, is suddenly going to turn into Joe Burrow. That's asking a bit much.
But could Aguilar be the next coming of Hendon Hooker?
Maybe. Hooker was an afterthought before the 2021 season and he ended up being one of the best quarterbacks we've seen at Tennessee in the post-Phillip Fulmer era. Maybe Aguilar follows the same script.
Of course, Aguilar first has to win the job over redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre — which won't be easy.
I think the take from McElroy on the Vols is very fair. A lot needs to go right for Tennessee in 2025. But if everything goes right, the Vols could certainly be a threat to win the SEC.
