It took Joey Aguilar less time than Nico Iamaleava to become a star at Tennessee. He was a big gamble for Josh Heupel, under whom Aguilar’s career took a whole new turn. Now, 4 games into the season as QB1 of the Volunteers, Aguilar is tied third in the country for passing TDs. But the QB has come a long way to taste this kind of success. Aguilar, at one point in his career, even thought of hanging up his cleats. He reconsidered football only after pressure from his closest supporters, which is something Tennessee fans will be grateful for.

Joey Aguilar had no good offers coming out of his prep career. He began his CFB journey and City College of San Francisco. But then COVID came and threw his career into limbo when the 2020 season got canceled. Football suddenly became a distant dream for Aguilar, who then thought of pursuing another one: becoming a fireman. But pressure from his support circle pushed him to hang on. “People were saying, ‘Give it one more shot,’” Aguilar said at a presser on August 20. Among those was the man who kick-started his second innings in the sport: Diablo Valley College HC Mike Darr.

Darr, a cancer survivor, saw potential in the QB that others hadn’t. Here’s how he pitched the offer to Aguilar. “I said, ‘It’s an amazing job, and you’ll be absolutely amazing at it, you know. But it’ll still be there after you take this chance. And you may, you may end up enjoying football again, and, you know, really getting that opportunity to fulfill all those dreams that you had since you were a little boy,” he told Full Disclosure Productions in a September 25 video. Joey Aguilar ultimately took that leap of faith, which thankfully worked out in his favor.

Also standing behind Joey Aguilar was his mother, Lydia. Until the UAB game, she has been present in all of her son’s games. When the QB1 thought of ending his football career, Lydia pushed back. “We were just like, ‘No.’ You know, ‘You got to go work for it, you got to go do what you got to do,” she told host Paige Dauer in the video. A few years later, Lydia saw Joey take run out from the tunnel at Neyland for the first time. It made Lydia emotional for obvious reasons. “You’re not going to waste this talent that you have,” she’d said, and boy have those words come true.

Joey Aguilar inadvertently became part of one of college football’s hottest headlines in the offseason. He and Tennessee football became a blessing for each other. Now, Aguilar is even in contention to win the Heisman, placing 9 in the odds. From considering an end to his football career, he’s now smack dab in the middle among the best in college football. The QB is also reportedly set to earn $1.2 million in NIL from Tennessee, That’s a journey not everybody gets to see in their lives. But Joey Aguilar didn’t just turn out to be lucky. He’s given a lot to be here, especially in his Diablo Valley days.

Mike Darr related with Joey Aguilar because of their tryst with adversities

Mike Darr already had a QB ready to go for the 2021 season in returning starter Dylan Graham. But he saw a special connect in Aguilar, relating with him and the uncertainties he faced at a young age. Darr dealt with cancer when he was just 16 years old. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Darr said about his illness. “Because it made me learn about, you know, what beating adversity means,” he added. Aguilar, after saying goodbye to career in firefighting, was also ready to fight for his spot on the gridiron.

“Stepping into those kinds of challenges is just who he is and what he’s done, and it’s never slowed him down,” Darr said. Aguilar sparred with Graham in the run-up to the 2021 season to win the QB1 job, but it was the latter who prevailed. But he was in for a surprise in Week 6 that year, when he replaced Graham as the starter against Laney. The Vikings, with Aguilar in play, won that game comfortably at 54-29. He held on to that position for the rest of the season, and for a good part of the next.

Joey Aguilar’s time at Diablo Valley proved that the football world was in more need of his skills than firefighting. But he wouldn’t have made his way to Rocky Top if it weren’t for his coach and mom, who pushed him to reconsider. Now at Tennessee, he’s giving all those who doubted his and the program’s success this year a run for their money.