Skip to main content
Tennessee

Josh Heupel explains what he likes best about Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar

IMG_3593by: Grant Ramey10 hours agoGrantRamey
Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images | Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar (6) signs a fans’ shirt during the Vol Walk before a college football game between Tennessee and UAB at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 20, 2025.
Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images | Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar (6) signs a fans’ shirt during the Vol Walk before a college football game between Tennessee and UAB at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 20, 2025.

What Josh Heupel has learned to like most about Joey Aguilar is the look on his face when he runs to the sideline. There’s never any change in the expression of the Tennessee quarterback, whether he just threw a long touchdown pass or was just picked off.

“What I love about him,” Heupel said Saturday afternoon, “whether it’s good play, bad play, good series, bad series, same demeanor coming off on the sideline. He goes and approaches the next play, next series the same way.”

More often than not through the first four games of the season, Aguilar has been keeping calm after another touchdown as he makes his way off the field. 

In No. 15 Tennessee’s 56-24 win over UAB on Saturday at Neyland Stadium, Aguilar threw for 218 yards and another three touchdowns. He’s now up to 1,124 yards and 12 passing touchdowns, against three interceptions, with the Vols.

Aguilar threw a 19-yard touchdown to Chris Brazzell II and a 39-yarder to Mike Matthews in the first quarter on Saturday. He added a 17-yard touchdown to Star Thomas on a left-handed shove pass. 

His lone interception came on a Brazzell target over the middle, with the ball deflected high into the air before being picked off.

“He’s aggressive,” Heupel said, “but playing smart football. And he’s got the one pick (against UAB), gets batted up in the air, and he comes back, resets and goes and plays the next series. And I think that’s one of a lot of elite traits that he has.”

Aguilar was at his best last week, throwing for 347 yards and accounting for five total touchdowns in Tennessee’s 44-41 overtime loss to Georgia. 

He completed 16 of 28 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns against Syracuse, while making his Tennessee debut in the 45-26 win in Atlanta on August 30. He had another 288 yards and two touchdowns while playing just the first half of the 72-17 win over ETSU two weeks ago. 

“It’s been amazing,” Aguilar said on Saturday. “You’ve got to just embrace and have fun with it.”

And keep refusing to blink — after both the good and the bad. 

“All the stress that we did to come here is gone,” Aguilar said, “and we have the ability to go out there and just play for Tennessee and play for the fans and just go out there and do what we do. 

“So you can never not be mad at that. I mean, good plays happen, bad plays happen. You just got to keep pushing through and just keep smiling and keep playing.”