Joey Aguilar, Bruins Both Moving On

It’s fair to say that even though everything worked out perfectly for UCLA football, the way the transfer portal panned out left some animosity.

With Ethan Garbers moving onto the NFL, there was a pressing need for a new quarterback in Westwood — and Joey Aguilar was just the guy to do it.

Aguilar is a self-starter, originally beginning his career at a community college and building himself up to become one of the Sun Belt’s most efficient quarterbacks.

In his two seasons, he posted consecutive 3,000-yard campaigns, including his junior year where he threw for over 3,700 yards and just 10 interceptions. And once the transfer portal opened, it didn’t take long for Aguilar to become a Bruin.

Along the way, though, after a few months, the toy store restocked the shinier toy Foster was originally looking for — the one he was told had already sold out.

You may have heard the Nico Iamaleava saga and why it didn’t work out at the University of Tennessee. Reports say it was about money, but Iamaleava has consistently refuted that, stating at Big Ten Media Day that it was about being closer to home.

Now it’s starting to come out that Aguilar and his representation weren’t too thrilled with how head coach DeShaun Foster handled the quarterback situation in April.

In a piece written by The Athletic’s Sam Khan Jr., when Iamaleava hit the portal, Aguilar’s family started to get a bad feeling.

“We smelled it,” said Aguilar’s father, Jose.

It got to the point where his parents encouraged him to reach out to Foster and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri — someone Aguilar had grown close to over the prior four months.

“It was a little unsettling because we were finding out information through the media,” said Danny Hernandez, Aguilar’s private quarterbacks coach. “Tino Sunseri was in the dark on a lot of stuff… It felt like nobody knew what was going on and nobody was talking. It just really seemed like a bad situation.”

Foster did stand firm on the idea that there was a healthy, open line of communication:

“We talked to Joey before it went public, so he heard it from us before he heard it from the media or anything.”

But Aguilar maintained that the vibes were off, and it was clear something was going on behind closed doors.

In the end, it was UCLA’s decision, and it did what it felt was right. The Aguilar family understood that.

“At the same time, they don’t have to be,” Jose said. “It’s their program. They’re going to run it how they want to run it.”

Still, it all worked out in the end: Iamaleava got to return home, and Aguilar now has the chance to start for an SEC school. Not bad for a kid who started at community college, right?