{"id":296882,"date":"2025-08-18T02:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/296882\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T02:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:21:13","slug":"joey-aguilar-named-starting-quarterback-for-tennessee-football-vs-syracuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/296882\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey Aguilar named starting quarterback for Tennessee football vs. Syracuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following an offseason full of turmoil, Tennessee football<\/a> has named its starting quarterback for its 2025 season opener<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joey Aguilar<\/a> will earn the start for the No. 18 Vols<\/a> when they open the season against Syracuse<\/a> on Saturday, Aug. 30, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in the Aflac Kickoff Game. UT football announced coach Josh Heupel’s decision on X<\/a>, formerly Twitter, on Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

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REQUIRED READING: What are the best college football games of Week1? We list the top 10<\/a><\/p>\n

“At the helm,” the post said, along with a photo of Aguilar in Neyland Stadium.<\/p>\n

According to the Knoxville News Sentinel<\/a>, part of the USA TODAY Network, the team was informed of the decision to start Aguilar during a team meeting on Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

Aguilar beat out redshirt freshman\u00a0Jake Merklinger<\/a>\u00a0and freshman\u00a0George MacIntyre<\/a>\u00a0for the starting gig. The UCLA transfer and former Appalachian State standout was the 2023 Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year. He threw for 6,760 yards and 56 touchdowns in two seasons for the Mountaineers.<\/p>\n

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He transferred to UCLA<\/a> over the offseason, but then transferred again to the Vols following Nico Iamaleava’s transfer to UCLA<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder from Antioch, California, walked on at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California, in 2021, and proceeded to throw for almost 3,000 yards in two seasons before finally earning his long-awaited Division I scholarship at Appalachian State<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joey Aguilar stats<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at Aguilar’s stats during his two seasons with Appalachian State:<\/p>\n

2023 (App State): 293-for-460 passing (63.7%) for 3,757 yards, 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions; 81 rushes for 249 yards and three touchdowns<\/p>\n

2024 (App State): 218-for-390 passing (55.9%) for 3,003 yards, 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions; 59 rushes for 207 yards and two touchdowns<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joey Aguilar named Tennessee football starting quarterback vs Syracuse<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following an offseason full of turmoil, Tennessee football has named its starting quarterback for its 2025 season opener.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[16649,24586,223,7,20707,1376,1257,377,1209,56584,56585],"class_list":{"0":"post-296882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-aflac-kickoff-game","9":"tag-appalachian-state","10":"tag-atlanta","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-joey-aguilar","13":"tag-josh-heupel","14":"tag-quarterback","15":"tag-sun","16":"tag-tennessee-football","17":"tag-the-knoxville-news-sentinel","18":"tag-ut-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115047385204524063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}