We have been laughing for 10 minutes straight. Nico Iamaleava’s flip to UCLA wasn’t just a slap across Rocky Top’s face—it also straight-up sent shockwaves through the Bruins’ QB room. DeShaun Foster had it all lined up with Joey Aguilar as his 2025 anchor. Then boom—Nico shows up, and the whole blueprint gets tossed into the fire. With Nico in the house on a massive million-dollar deal, do you really think Foster will waste any time on Aguilar? Yeah, exactly. You know what they say—when one door closes, another one swings wide open. And for once, it is not Josh Heupel getting smacked in the face by it.

“Tennessee, Tulane, and Wake Forest are early schools to watch for UCLA transfer QB Joey Aguilar, @PeteNakos_ reports👀” When On3 dropped this update on X, we could practically hear Vols Nation exhale in unison like a weight being lifted off their shoulders. Vols being on the watch list is not surprising. More so because they NEED a miracle in their QB room. Right now, Heupel is dealing with only 2 cards in his QB deck—neither being even remotely close to aces.

On top of all of this, Aguilar’s flip to Vols makes perfect sense. Why? See, at the heart of it, Aguilar was the destined QB1 for the Bruins. After a stellar season at Appalachian State and with a hefty $1.5 million NIL deal backing his transfer, Aguilar was ready to be Cali’s next big thing. Then Nico happened, and Foster announced “open competition for the starting role.”

Now, if Joey wants to be petty, he could just slap Nico’s hand away, jog over to the Vols, and cash in on a fat paycheck while watching UCLA scramble. However, all of this is a “theory”. You have to understand that Joey is in a big predicament: battle for the starting job in an offense he already knows or take the risk in a completely unfamiliar system—just for the sake of revenge.

And as fun as that revenge arc sounds, Aguilar doesn’t exactly fit the Vols’ setup in the first place. But then again, with ‘Cuse swooping in and stealing Heupel’s final QB option, does he even have the luxury to be picky anymore?

Something in the Orange

“Notre Dame transfer Steve Angeli is visiting Syracuse on Monday.” Someone should advise Heupel to reach out to a shaman or similar, as he undoubtedly bears a curse. When Steve Angeli’s transfer news dropped, it opened a window for Heupel to try something out and save his 2025 conquest.

Sadly, the ‘Cuse Orange squad has rolled into campus and now sits in pole position to grab the 808-yard transfer. And while Fran Brown probably won’t hand Steve the QB1 keys (Rickie Collins has that on lock), the backup room just opened up with Michael Johnson Jr. gone—making it a pretty comfy landing spot.

Coming from Notre Dame, Steve is a very reliable option in the transfer portal, and even if Heupel wants to snag the guy, it won’t be happening anytime soon. For now, all eyes are locked on Joey. If he flips to Tennessee and somehow cooks up a solid 2025 run, you better believe Rocky Top will be busy turning Nico into the punchline of every meme east of the Mississippi.

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