Joey Halzle breaks down how Joey Aguilar can mesh with Tennessee offense

The college football world was turned upside down in April when Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleavaannounced his departure from the program just months after leading the ‘Vols to the College Football Playoff. Iamaleava ended up at UCLA, where he will be the Bruins’ starting quarterback this season.

In turn, UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar (who transferred from Appalachian State in December) hopped back in the Transfer Portal and ended up in Knoxville. He will likely be Tennessee‘s starting quarterback this season, although head coach Josh Heupel has yet to rule out quarterbacks Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre.

Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzlediscussed how Aguilar has meshed with the Volunteer offense so far earlier this week. Aguilar spent two years as the starting quarterback at App State, where he threw for 6,760 yards, 56 touchdowns and 24 interceptions.

“Well I think a lot of that comes from what we can do here scheme wise, getting him ready to go as far as fundamentals, eye placement and getting involved in our scheme,” Halzle said about Aguilar’s interception troubles last season. “It’s never just a plug-and-play with an older guy like a lot of people think. If you just drop a guy in and he’s played so he knows how to do it, it’s all gonna be ‘how does he go through this offense and how does he adjust to our fundamentals the way we teach it and use our eyes?”

Aguilar has high expectations to live up to this season in Knoxville

“His ability to dive into that and his want to dive into that has been awesome. You don’t want to force any issues there but obviously that’s why we’re going into fall camp and we’ve got to go see the actual proof of concept there.”

Aguilar has high expectations to live up to at Tennessee, as recent quarterbacks Hendon Hooker and Nico Iamaleava have shined in Knoxville. He’ll lead the Volunteers offense this season, although it looks much different than it did last season. 

It lost its top four offensive playmakers in running back Dylan Sampson and wide receivers Dont’e Thornton Jr, Bru McCoy and Squirrel White this offseason, but this has allowed for receivers Mike Matthews and Chris Brazzell II to climb up the depth chart.

“Joey’s been high-end at [watching film] since he got here in late May,” he continued. “He didn’t start by starting where everyone else was, he went back and did every single spring install that our entire team went through. He did that on his own in about four days. He’s embraced it really well and went out and walked through it all on the field at a high level. He’s been going through summer ball the exact same way so there hasn’t been any falloff there.”

Tennessee opens its 2025 campaign on Aug. 30 in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes Benz Stadium against Syracuse. Kick-off is scheduled for 12:00 PM on ABC.