Josh Heupel needs to take a page out of Phillip Fulmer's playbook for the Tennessee Vols to be successful in 2025

Josh Heupel needs to take a page out of the Phillip Fulmer playbook for the Tennessee Vols to reach their ceiling in 2025. 

Thanks to the unexpected departure of quarterback Nico Iamaleava during the spring transfer window, the Vols will feature a surprise quarterback battle this fall between UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar, redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger, and true freshman George MacIntyre. 

Former Ohio State/Florida head coach Urban Meyer said earlier this week that Heupel needs to name a starting quarterback within the the first two weeks of fall camp. 

Meyer obviously has the credentials to dole out advice to current college football coaches, but I think naming a starter early in fall camp is actually the opposite of what Heupel should do. 

Instead, I think Heupel needs to take the same approach that Fulmer took in 2004 when Tennessee held a quarterback battle between CJ Leak, Rick Clausen, Brent Schaeffer, and Erik Ainge. 

Fulmer let the battle continue into the 2004 season (he named Schaeffer and Ainge, both of whom were true freshmen, as co-number ones on the depth chart and Leak and Clausen as co-number twos). 

Schaeffer started the season-opener against UNLV, but it was Ainge who eventually emerged as the Vols' top quarterback (until a shoulder injury sidelined him late in the season, paving the way for Clausen to receive snaps). 

If Heupel names an official starter ahead of the season, he runs the risk of running into the same situation that he did in 2021 when he named Joe Milton as the starter over Hendon Hooker. 

Milton had the better fall camp for the Vols in 2021, but Hooker proved to be Tennessee's best option when the lights came on. 

Former Vols offensive coordinator Alex Golesh, who was on staff at Tennessee in 2021 and 2022, admitted in late 2023 that he was wrong in thinking that Milton should be the starter in 2021. 

"I don't know that you really know until you know," said Golesh while discussing identifying a starting quarterback. "I went through it at the previous place (Tennessee) where I thought I knew and I was wrong, so I'm humble enough to admit that."

We've seen plenty of instances in college football where the best quarterback in practice doesn't prove to be the best quarterback on game day (Josh Dobbs in 2013 and 2014 at Tennessee, for example). 

What happens during fall camp should matter. And Heupel and his staff should trust their eyes. But they should also learn from their mistake in 2021 and give more than one quarterback a chance early in the season to make sure they aren't accidentally keeping a star player on the bench. 

By the way, that 2004 season was the last time that Tennessee beat Florida, Georgia, and Alabama in the same season....