Mike Darr, Joey Aguilar’s former junior college coach, recalls when the phone calls started pouring in as Power 4 schools flirted with NCAA tampering rules to land the quarterback.
It was late in Aguilar’s junior season in 2023. And college football programs from every power conference wanted to know if Aguilar would jump into the transfer portal and come to their school.
That was a year and half before the quarterback transferred to Tennessee and was ultimately named the Vols’ starter heading into the opener against Syracuse in Atlanta on Aug. 30 (noon ET, ABC).
“I got several calls from a lot of Power 4 (schools),” said Darr, who coached Aguilar at Diablo Valley College in 2021-22. “Even a couple of SEC schools contacted me about whether he would be willing to jump into the portal.
“(The interest in Aguilar) was not a surprise to any of us because of how well he did at App State that first year and what kind of competitor he is.”
In the 2023 season, Aguilar threw 33 touchdown passes for Appalachian State, the fifth-most in FBS. That narrowly trailed LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Washington’s Michael Penix and Oregon’s Bo Nix – the top three vote-getters in the Heisman Trophy race that season.
That put Aguilar on the radar of several schools in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC that were eager to get a transfer quarterback. They all wanted him.
Darr did not reveal which schools inquired about Aguilar, including those in the SEC. But his phone seemed to ring off the hook as Aguilar racked up passing records.
Joey Aguilar wasn’t leaving, but schools still tried to get him
Darr didn’t say that he passed along those inquiries to Aguilar back in 2023. Aguilar did not enter the portal at that time and remained at Appalachian State for the 2024 season.
It was just striking to Darr that so many schools wanted Aguilar so badly that they’d call him in hopes of getting the quarterback into the portal. He had coached Aguilar for two seasons at a junior college in California, but by that time he was coaching high school football in San Antionio.
Those schools were risking tampering violations under NCAA rules.
Athletic staff members are not allowed to contact athletes at another NCAA Division I institution, or their family members or advisors, without first obtaining authorization through the notification of transfer process. Darr could be considered a representative of Aguilar even though he wasn’t his coach at the time.
Granted, tampering is common and rampant in college football in the transfer portal era. But schools still take calculated risks by attempting to contact coveted players at other schools and convince them to enter the portal.
Aguilar didn’t bite. But it was an indication that several Power 4 schools thought he could compete at the highest level of college football if they could just get him on their roster.
Almost two years later, Tennessee hopes they were right.
How Joey Aguilar finally entered transfer portal one year later
After the 2024 season, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA that forced the association to grant an extra year of eligibility to former junior college transfers whose eligibility was expiring. And Appalachian State coach Shawn Clark was fired.
That put Aguilar back on the wish list of schools wanting him to transfer.
“After that first year (at Appalachian State), that’s when the calls started coming,” Darr said. “And after everything happened with Diego Pavia, then the calls started coming in again.”
Aguilar transferred to UCLA. Then in April, quarterback Nico Iamaleava left Tennessee over an NIL dispute and transferred to UCLA, pushing Aguilar back on the open market.
Now heading into the 2025 season with Tennessee, Aguilar says he’s eager to finally get his chance as a Power 4 quarterback.
“I had to work for everything I got,” Aguilar said. “And this is where everyone wants to play.”
Joey Aguilar among SEC’s most experienced QBs, albeit in Sun Belt
Aguilar hasn’t played for a Power 4 school. He spent the past two seasons in the Sun Belt Conference. But in terms of the FBS level, he is among the most experienced quarterbacks in the SEC.
Here are FBS career starts for every projected starting quarterback in the SEC:
Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia: 36 (including 23 at New Mexico State)Arkansas’ Taylen Green: 35 (including 22 at Boise State)Mississippi State’s Blake Shapen: 27 (including 23 at Baylor)Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar: 24 (all at Appalachian State)LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier: 14South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers: 12Oklahoma’s John Mateer: 12 (all at Washington State)Kentucky’s Zach Calzada: 10 (all at Texas A&M)Auburn’s Jackson Arnold: 9 (all at Oklahoma)Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed: 8 Florida’s DJ Lagway: 7Texas’ Arch Manning: 2Georgia’s Gunner Stockton: 1Alabama’s Ty Simpson: 0Ole Miss’ Austin Simmons: 0Missouri’s Beau Pribula: 0
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
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