Joey Aguilar reveals his reaction to being named Tennessee starting quarterback

Tennessee officially named Joey Aguilar its starting quarterback over the weekend, following a dominant start to fall camp. He’ll be the guy that attempts to take the Volunteers back to the College Football Playoff.

Aguilar, who initially transferred to UCLA this offseason before Nico Iamaleava left Tennessee and went there, won the job after a compelling competition this fall. He opened up on what that meant to him.

“I was super excited,” Aguilar said. “I mean, coming out here and being the starting quarterback for this program is nothing but exciting me. That’s all I can say. I’m just super excited.”

Joey Aguilar was extremely productive over the last two years at Appalachian State. He threw for 6,760 yards and 56 touchdowns.

If there’s a concern, though, it’s the turnovers. He threw 24 interceptions over the last two years, leading the country with 14 last fall.

So what won the job for Joey Aguilar? He couldn’t pinpoint anything specific.

“It’s tough to say. I would say I don’t think anything like specific, I would say,” he noted. “Just because George (MacIntyre) and Jake (Merklinger) are just really good athletes and good quarterbacks, as it was. It was a hard battle. It was fun, though. We went out there and competed with each other but also helped each other in every way we can. I don’t really have a specific answer for that.”

That was something Joey Aguilar sounded proud of after wrapping up the competition. There was never any bad blood in the room.

That’s a testament to the job coach Josh Heupel did in keeping the race friendly. But it was also on the players to buy in, and they did.

“He just told us the way we competed with each other, there’s two ways you compete with somebody,” Joey Aguilar said. “You can compete and just be solo and not really try to help that other person, or you can compete together and work.

“Iron sharpens iron, and work together to build whoever goes out there to be the starter, whether it was me or somebody else, that we are working together and be as one. I think just the way he told us how he liked how we went out there every day to support each other and going into practice not trying to be bad to the other person.”

Joey Aguilar and Tennessee will open the season with a tricky non-conference game against Syracuse. It will be played on Aug. 30 at 12 p.m. ET on ABC.