Greg McElroy identifies Tennessee's biggest needs in transfer portal

In April, quarterback Nico Iamaleava left Tennessee in dire straits when he decided to enter the transfer portal. With Iamaleava gone, Tennessee didn’t have any experienced options in their QB room.

Alas, it didn’t take long for the Volunteers to land their next QB1. Ironically, UCLA‘s Joey Aguilar transferred to Tennessee after Iamaleava transferred to UCLA. In April, ESPN analyst Greg McElroy discussed the importance of the transfer quarterback for Tennessee.

“Tennessee’s in win-now mode,” McElroy said. “I think they can win right now. Do I think they could regress a little bit this year? Perhaps, but that’s mostly because of what they lost on defense and the quality that they lost at running back. Everything else has a chance to be pretty dang good.

“I look at Tennessee and how the schedule sets up, and they might very much be in the mix for some opportunities to knock some teams off that maybe you don’t anticipate them knocking off going into this upcoming season. But it is entirely dependent on getting quality play at the quarterback spot. Josh Heupel‘s offense demands it.”

Aguilar has proven he’s capable of quality play in the past. He transferred to UCLA in December after spending two seasons at Appalachian State. In his two years with the Mountaineers, Aguilar amassed 6,760 passing yards and 56 touchdowns while throwing 24 interceptions.

In the ground game, Aguilar recorded 456 total rushing yards and five scores. His 3,757 passing yards in the 2023 campaign are the most in a single season in program history. He also shattered the record for passing touchdowns (33) in a single season that year.

McElroy doesn’t even believe that Aguilar has to be a star next season. He simply has to be competent.

“The guy doesn’t have to be able to throw it a country mile,” McElroy said. “We’ve seen that happen a million times. How many times in the last two years have we seen Tennessee quarterbacks miss on deep balls? And I’m not talking under throws. I’m talking about throwing 15 yards over guys’ heads or throwing it out of bounds. Joe Milton did it a million times, and we saw it an awful lot from Nico Iamaleava last year.

“You just need a guy that knows how to get the ball up and down, and that can hit guys in stride. So I think Tennessee’s offense can operate at a high level.”