Everything Josh Heupel said about Tennessee's quarterback battle at SEC Media Days

Everything Tennessee Football coach Josh Heupel said about his quarterback battle between Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre during his run through SEC Media Days Tuesday in Atlanta:

What he likes about the feedback he’s received on Tennessee’s quarterbacks, how different the summer is without an established starter

“We’ve been through it before. That’s here at Tennessee and different spots that I’ve been. At the end of the day, those guys got to continue to grow every single day. So being in the building, learning our offense, learning defensive structures, having an opportunity to go out on the field, work through it, grow every single day. They’ve done a great job in the weight room, but leadership, developing relationships with our guys, it’s constant growth for them. They’ve done a really good job in the meeting room being cohesive, caring about each other. I think that’s really important. Strength of one position can never just be one guy. As we’re getting to the backend of summer, certainly as we kick off training camp, those guys are going to have an opportunity to go compete and the best players are going to play.”

What he likes about Tennessee transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar

“We’ve had an opportunity to be out there with him throwing a little bit. And fundamentally, there’s some things that we’ve hit on with him that he’s continuing to grow throughout the course of the summer. He’s done a great job coming into our program, got there in May, got a chance to go through the installs. It’s his second time through it here and during the course of the summer. He’s growing every single day. But his ability to connect with the guys inside of our roster, as a veteran guy coming in, just developing relationships, then earning the trust of those guys by how you approach every single day.”

How much he appreciates the approach of Joey Aguilar, making it about the team and not himself 

“Yeah, absolutely. I think when you’re coming in, how you present yourself every single day that’s in the building and outside of it is going to be the perception, certainly early on, of how the players perceive you. And for him to come in, be about his work, continue to grow, like the first week he was here with all of our guys, offensive linemen, taking them out to dinner, those types of things, those are our little steps and developing a relationship with guys where you can eventually lead them. And all three of those guys, Merk (Jake Merklinger) and George (MacIntyre) have continued to do a great job of that as well. But certainly respect what Joey has done since he got here on campus.”

His message to Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre as they enter Tennessee’s fall camp 

“It’s a competition every single day. That’s how you handle yourself, that’s how you handle success, that’s how you handle a bad play. It’s the mastering and control and command of what we’re doing offensively. All three of those guys know that they’re going to get their opportunities. Being urgent in your preparation, going out and competing, cutting it loose and going and playing ball. And we’ve been through this before. You look at Joe (Milton) and Hendon (Hooker) and the way that they competed during the course of a training camp. One guy gets named the starter, another guy gets dinged up, next guy is in. Those two guys had great relationships. They helped each other, they challenged each other, they’re still great friends today, they’re both playing in the NFL. I think that represents what’s good inside of a meeting room and certainly a quarterback room.”

Tennessee quarterback Jake Merklinger’s progression to this point

“Yeah, fundamentally he’s continued to grow the ability to be accurate with the football. Through the course of spring he got better every single day. He handled good plays, bad plays extremely well. Was very consistent in who he was. Really grew in his command of what we’re doing offensively. He’s done that throughout the course of the summer too. And when we get to training camp, looking forward to seeing him compete.”

Losing Nico Iamaleava to the NCAA Transfer Portal in April and if a program can be prepared for a QB change at that point 

“Ultimately at the end of the day, it’s never about who’s not in your building but about who is in your building. For us, you can lose a quarterback at a lot of different times: December transfer portal, spring transfer portal. You can lose one week 1, first quarter of the ballgame in your opener, and now you’re on to number two through injury, right? You’ve got to have the next-man-up mentality.

“At the end of the day, having guys that want to compete along with their brothers inside of that locker room, building that connection, but also having the right guys in there.

“At the end of the day, I’m really excited about who we have in there. The addition of Joey to who’s already inside of that group, highly competitive guys that are smart, that have the physical traits to be successful. Teammates have grown to have great trust in those guys through the course of this off-season during the summer, and now it’s about getting to training camp and going and competing. Somebody is going to earn the opportunity to be our starting quarterback through that process.”

The benefits of a team like Tennessee not naming a starter at QB and having a position battle during fall camp

“I think it’s important. We talk about it at the beginning of every year. You earn everything in this game, and you certainly do inside of our team room, and that’s who you are, your understanding of what we want to be — fundamental, technique, scheme. It’s how you compete every single day. It’s what you’re doing off of the field.

“That’s certainly true at the quarterback position. I think it’s important, through my career as a player, as a coach, different spots that I’ve been, I think it’s really important that everybody on your team sees that guy earn that job as well.

“As you get out on the practice field, their ability to command everything that you’re doing on offense, the ability to handle bad play and reset, the ability to handle a good play, go play the next play, the ability to impact the guys around you in a positive way — you know, run game checks, protections, all the things that go into playing that position. I think it’s really important that the guys around them see them earn it.

“Through the course of training camp, we don’t have a set timeline on when we want to announce somebody as our starter. Once somebody earns that opportunity, then they’ll be named that guy.”

If Joey Aguilar had to go through an accelerated install process after arriving when he did

“Yeah, got there in May. It’s something that we’ve been through before as a staff. Took him through our spring installs once he was there on campus. He got a chance to digest those things. You get into summer, you’re able to kind of repeat some of those things. He’s continued to grow in his understanding of what we’re doing and also the verbiage that we’re using, maybe identifying defensive structures.

“There’s so many nuances that go into it, to having clear communication on the meeting room, on the practice field, and then ultimately on game day as well.

“Is it an accelerated process? Absolutely. I think anytime you have a guy that’s played a lot of football and sat in college meeting rooms offensively, he’s been able to be a part of different things, he’s able to draw on those experiences, correlate it to something that maybe he’s done before, and kind of expedite the growth process as well.”