4 Months In as Nico Iamaleava Replacement, Joey Aguilar Makes Raw Tennessee Locker Room Confession: ‘Had to Earn My Way In’

Week 1 of college football delivered plenty of standout performances that lived up to the hype. Garrett Nussmeier met his Heisman-like expectations for LSU, while Thomas Castellanos walked his preseason talk. But if we had to choose a player who nobody expected to show up big amid all the offseason chaos, it’s Joey Aguilar. The Tennessee transfer quarterback guided the Volunteers to a commanding 45-26 victory over Syracuse at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. After months of uncertainty following Nico Iamaleava’s departure to UCLA, Aguilar stepped into the spotlight and delivered when it mattered most.

Joey Aguilar’s debut numbers told the story of a quarterback ready for the moment. He completed 16 of 28 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns without throwing an interception, posting a stellar 166.6 passer rating. His longest completion was a perfectly placed 73-yard touchdown bomb to Braylon Staley that showcased the deep ball accuracy that Iamaleava struggled with during his 2024 campaign. The former Appalachian State star also contributed 34 rushing yards on six carries, adding another dimension to Tennessee’s offense. This performance came after an offseason filled with quarterback carousel drama that saw the Volunteers lose Nico Iamaleava for NIL and whatnot. The Vols were in a scramble to find a replacement through the transfer portal.

The path to this successful debut absolutely required elite skill and learning the playbook in a short time. But that wasn’t the only work Joey Aguilar had for him. Speaking to Paul Finebaum on ESPN, Aguilar revealed his deliberate approach to earning his teammates’ respect. “When I got here, I had to earn my way in trust. You know, trust isn’t built overnight. It takes time,” Aguilar confessed. Aguilar understood that replacing a highly touted player like Nico Iamaleava required more than just athletic ability. Trust becomes the foundation of any successful quarterback-team relationship, and Joey Aguilar recognized that his teammates needed to believe in him both as a player and as a person before they could function as a cohesive unit.

Aguilar’s approach went beyond the football facility and into building genuine relationships. “So, there was a tradition at App State of just taking my teammates out to eat. So, I kind of wanted to bring that here and take my o-line out to eat, receivers out to eat, pretty much the whole offense out to eat. So, just going out to eat and just having a fun time of like kind of getting outside of football and just trying to build a connection, learn everybody’s story,” he explained to Finebaum. This was strategic relationship building that paid dividends on game day. The connection between Aguilar and his receivers was evident in those three touchdown passes, while his offensive line gave him clean pockets throughout the Syracuse game. When teammates trust their quarterback off the field, that confidence translates into better execution during crucial moments.

Tennessee appears to have found a capable replacement for Nico Iamaleava, but the real test lies ahead. The Volunteers face an unforgiving SEC schedule that includes Georgia in Week 3, followed by battles against Alabama, Florida, and Oklahoma. Paul Finebaum had already predicted that Aguilar would outperform Iamaleava’s 2024 season, and the early returns suggest he might be right. If Aguilar can maintain this level of play while continuing to strengthen those teammate bonds he’s worked so hard to build, Tennessee could be positioned for a special season in the competitive SEC landscape.

Secondary suffers a critical blow

The injury to Rickey Gibson III strips Tennessee of its most experienced cornerback at the worst possible time. Gibson had emerged as a reliable force in the secondary last season, recording 32 tackles and five pass breakups while starting all 13 games. His departure after just 19 snaps against Syracuse leaves the Volunteers dangerously thin at a position already decimated by Jermod McCoy’s ongoing ACL recovery. The timing couldn’t be more problematic, with Georgia’s high-powered passing attack looming in just two weeks and a brutal SEC schedule that will test every weakness in Tennessee’s defensive armor.

Josh Heupel’s Monday press conference delivered the confirmation that Vol Nation had been dreading since watching Gibson crumple to the turf in Atlanta. “Rickey will be out for an extended period here,” Heupel said, his words carrying the weight of a season’s worth of implications. The head coach’s reluctance to provide specifics, “How long, I don’t have the exact timeline on. But he’ll be out for an extended time”, only amplified concerns about the severity of what multiple sources have described as an upper-body injury. For a team already operating without its projected top cornerback, losing Gibson transforms what was a manageable depth issue into a potential crisis that could define Tennessee’s 2025 campaign.

The ripple effects extend far beyond the secondary itself, forcing defensive coordinator Tim Banks to completely restructure his coverage schemes around inexperienced players. Colorado transfer Colton Hood’s impressive debut, which earned him SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors, provides some hope, but asking a newcomer and true freshman Ty Redmond to anchor the boundary against elite SEC receivers represents a massive gamble. With McCoy’s return timeline still uncertain and Gibson now sidelined indefinitely, Tennessee’s championship aspirations may ultimately depend on whether two players with zero combined SEC starts can mature quickly enough to survive the gauntlet ahead.