Grey McElroy Reveals His Biggest Concern with Tennessee

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Nate Lunak | Last updated Aug 5, 2025 1:31 PM ET

The regular season is quickly approaching and on Monday, in a video posted to the "ESPN College Football" YouTube channel, analyst Greg McElroy revealed teams 25 through 11 in his top 25 rankings.

He wound up placing the Tennessee Volunteers at No. 21, which could be viewed as a bit low for a team that's coming off a College Football Playoff, but the analyst did provide his reasons when going over his biggest concern for the program.

“What concerns me is their quarterback, and this is not an indictment on Joey Aguilar…He’s got to learn a new scheme, and this is a scheme that does require some rep equity that you have to be on the same page with your wide receivers,” McElroy said. “There’s a lot of reading. There’s a lot of reacting to what the defense does, and Josh Heupel can simplify things, but it’s going to be up to Joey Aguilar to have a great grasp, and he’s not going to have a lot of time to learn it. So that remains a concern for me.”

Has Aguilar Already Won Tennessee's Starting Spot?

Of course, after losing last year's starter, Nico Iamaleava, in the transfer portal, the Volunteers have found themselves in a quarterback battle between Aguilar, Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre.

However, it's clear that even with those concerns shared by McElroy, Aguilar is standing out as the top option, with a big factor being that he's the only one with real experience as a starter at the collegiate level.

Tennessee's coaching staff still has nearly a month until they truly need to make this decision, but for now it's his spot to lose with Grant Grubbs on On3 also naming him the frontrunner.

What Do Aguilar's Past Numbers Look Like?

The quarterback is coming off his second season as the full-time starter for the Appalachian State Mountaineers, and in that time, it's not as though he's blown people away with his production.

In 25 games, he's completed 511-of-850 passes for 6,760 yards, 56 touchdowns, 24 interceptions and a 143 passing efficiency rating, which shows he has a slight problem when it comes to allowing turnovers.

Has Aguilar Worked to Learn Tennessee's Offense?

Of course, learning an entire team's offense in one summer can certainly be difficult, so McElroy's concern does hold some weight, but offensive coordinator Joey Halzle eased some of that when asked about Aguilar's film study habits.

“Joey’s been high end at that since he’s gotten here," Hazle said during a press conference. Ever since he got here late in May. He didn’t start by starting where everyone else was. He went back and did every single spring install that our entire team went through. He did that on his own in about four days, embraced it really well, went out and walked through it all on the field at a high level."

However, that will be truly tested if Aguilar is the first quarterback to take the field for the Volunteers in their season-opener against the Syracuse Orange on Aug. 30.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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