Former Alabama QB says Tennessee Vols QB Joey Aguilar will throw more interceptions in season-opener than Syracuse QB Steve Angeli

ESPN college football analyst and former Alabama Crimson quarterback Greg McElroy thinks Tennessee Vols quarterback Joey Aguilar will throw more interceptions on Saturday than Syracuse quarterback Steve Angeli.

Tennessee and Syracuse are set to face off in Atlanta on Saturday at 12:00 PM ET.

Aguilar and Angeli both won the starting quarterback jobs during fall camp after transferring earlier in the offseason -- Aguilar from UCLA and Angeli from Notre Dame.

McElroy was asked during Wednesday's edition of McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning if thinks Aguilar or Angeli will throw more interceptions on Saturday.

While the former Alabama quarterback went with Aguilar to throw more interceptions, he noted that he still thinks Tennessee will win the game.

"Aguilar," said McElroy when asked which quarterback will throw more interceptions on Saturday. "I just think he's a little bit more of a risk taker. Like, Angeli knows who he is -- he's going to play winning football....It's not going to be glamorous. It's going to be efficient, it's going to be moving the chains. I think he will get flustered. I think Tennessee will win the game. I just think Angeli is not going to be a guy that puts his team in harm's way."

Aguilar has been labeled as turnover prone due to the 14 interceptions he threw while playing at Appalachian State last season.

But I'm not sure that's fair.

For starters, Aguilar admitted to the Knoxville News Sentinel that he tried to do "too much" last season after enjoying a terrific season in 2023.

“I put up a better season in ’23. But I tried to do a little too much in ’24,” said Aguilar. “But the past is the past, and all you can do is learn from it and do better.”

There's also the fact that quarterbacks simply don't throw that many interceptions in Tennessee's offense.

Hendon Hooker, for example, threw an interception once every 44 pass attempts when he was the quarterback at Virginia Tech. After transferring to Tennessee, Hooker threw an interception once every 126 pass attempts.

Aguilar threw an interception once every 35 pass attempts at Appalachian State. It's reasonable to expect that ratio to drop significantly for Aguilar now that he's at Tennessee based on what we saw from Hooker.

Something else to consider is that Tennessee's secondary has some dynamic playmakers in guys like Colton Hood, Rickey Gibson, Jalen McMurray, and Boo Carter (among others). Even if Angeli doesn't put the ball in harm's way, one of those guys could still make a play or two and come down with an interception.

We'll see on Saturday whether McElroy nailed this prediction or not.