What Joey Aguilar said after leading No. 20 Tennessee to 31-11 win at Florida

What Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar said during his postgame press conference after leading the Vols to a 31-11 win over Florida Saturday night at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville:

What it meant to him to lead a Tennessee team to a win in Gainesville for the first time since 2003

“Man, it’s awesome, to know how much it means to the program and the community, Tennessee, Knoxville. So to go out there and play how we played and pretty much dominate the whole game and to know everybody’s satisfied and happy for the fans and stuff, is a good feeling.”

Being able to recover his own fumble after getting strip sacked, Tennessee not letting Florida regain any momentum 

“Yeah, I just dropped back, dude made a play. I was trying to throw it downfield, and he got me as I was running out to throw the ball. Luckily, I didn’t fall down. He just kind of tried to strip in and go on from there. But I just followed the ball. It got kicked. Dude tried to jump on it, got kicked, and fell into my hands. So, I was just glad to hop back on the ball.”

What went into Tennessee’s fast start, scoring four touchdowns on the first four drives 

“Went just went back to details and execution. And our biggest thing is starting fast and finishing. We had a great week of preparation, great week of practice, and everybody was dialed in. And wanted to make a statement. We haven’t won here in a while, but this team hasn’t played here. So we went out there today and we played as a team and dominated the whole game.”

Doing the gator chomp after the game, celebrating with Tennessee fans and leading the band 

“I think that’s just something mandatory. If you win here, you’ve got to.

“It was awesome. I felt like I was in drum line, the leader. He asked me if I wanted to do it. I didn’t know what I was doing. He just told me to follow the guy next to me and I did. It was pretty cool. It was fun.”

The 52-yard run from Star Thomas to set up one of the touchdowns

“I just saw him break and I was super excited. And then we just try to hurry up, get a play in. Obviously they stopped to play, but when you watch it, he was down. But I’m back there just enjoying it. He’s breaking a 50-yard tug, so I’m just trying to make sure he gets in.”

Tennessee controlling the line of scrimmage

“Man, they controlled and they dominated up front from the start to finish. So, run game was working. Don’t stop, man. They controlled from the first play to the last. And credit to those guys because they grind every day and they got a lot that they got to deal with. And they came out here, worked hard, running backs ran hard, tight ends, receivers all contributed in that run game as well, blocking who they need to block. Congrats to those guys and I might have to go buy them some more food.”

Tennessee fans making the trip and getting to celebrate with the team after the game 

“It’s awesome. Like I said earlier, how much it means to the program and the fans to come down here and finally leave with a win. Last time, it was like 2003 or something like that. It’s wild, but like I said earlier, this team hasn’t played here and we came in here with a mindset that we could get it done and we did.”

What was key to Tennessee’s early offensive success

“Just alignment, assignment, keys and techniques. We go out there and sometimes we miss a little bit of those things and We got setbacks and it’s those things that we could fix on ourselves. Nothing major. So, like I said earlier, we had a great week of preparation and, you know, we dialed into those things and we went out there and executed.” 

Casey Clausen, another California native, being the last Tennessee quarterback to win in Gainesville, if he had those kind of conversations with him

“Yeah, I met him a little earlier in the season. Awesome guy. And it’s kind of cool that last time we won was with him, two California guys. But yeah, it was awesome. We had a conversation for a little while after practice one day, but he’s a great guy and I’m excited I could fall into the category he did.”

Casey Clausen’s message to him during those conversations 

“We kind of just talked about other stuff. We talked about football a little bit, but just meeting each other. His kids were there, so I introduced myself to the kids, but we just had a regular conversation.”

The importance of Tennessee tight end Ethan Davis with Miles Kitselman out

“Big. With Kits out, he had a role to step in and play how he played and he played great tonight. Super involved in the run game. And as you can see, he’s an athlete. He can go out there, run routes and make catches. To have a guy like that that can play both, hard for a defense to know what he’s going to do.” 

His plans for next year

“No, I still got the same answer. I’m just going to finish out this year and see what happens.”