Joey Aguilar calls out 'rat poison' after Tennessee's season-opening win over Syracuse

This offseason has been a long one for the Tennessee Volunteers. In particular, there’s been an increased focus on the quarterback position with the late transfer of Nico Iamaleava, only to be replaced by Joey Aguilar.

In his first game at Tennessee, the Volunteers put up 45 points in a neutral site win over the Syracuse Orange. It was, in many respects, a statement game. That included some proof that, despite all the talk that the program had to endure throughout the offseason, the Volunteers were more than capable on offense.

After the game, Aguilar called out that talk, referring to it as rat poison. Instead, he explained, of listening to that, the Volunteers have stayed focused internally.

“Like he said, all the outside noise is just rat poison,” Joey Aguilar said. “We only focus about who’s in the building and the team we’ve got. So, we’ve got to go back, execute, dial in on everything we got. Like he said, it’s FEB. Everything outside is rat poison, and we got to focus on ourselves.”

It’s been a long journey for Joey Aguilar to get to Tennessee. Aguilar was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2019. His career would be hampered by trying to play JUCO during the pandemic. Eventually, he’d move on to App State and later UCLA. He had actually just gotten to UCLA when Nico Iamaleava landed there, prompting his transfer to Tennessee. At times, it seemed like such a long shot to continue his football career that Aguilar almost walked away to become a firefighter.

“It’s crazy,” Aguilar said. “Because before I went JUCO, I wanted to be a fireman. So, I was like, I might as well start. COVID happened, and football was kind of done at the JUCO level. So, I was like, if I’m gonna do that, I might as well start my career, start taking classes for that. Then, when football came back around, I came back into it. Just to see like how my life shifted in just a short time. Just people saying, like, ‘Come play. One more time. Give it one more shot.’ So, it’s kind of crazy to see.”

Certainly, in his first game at Tennessee, Joey Aguilar made a solid first impression. He completed 16 of 28 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns, to go along with 34 rushing yards, in the win.

From here, Aguilar and Tennessee are hoping to continue avoiding any rat poison. Next week, the Volunteers take on East Tennessee State. After that, the schedule is going to kick into gear as SEC play kicks off on September 13th against Georgia.