Josh Heupel pulls back the curtain on phone call he had with Joey Aguilar before his transfer to Tennessee

The Tennessee Volunteers made headlines across the country this offseason with the departure of Nico Iamaleava on the weekend of the spring game. Naturally, that sent Tennessee's coaching staff into a scramble mode to find a veteran option to come in and compete with talented but unproven players in Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre.

Josh Heupel and his staff ultimately completed a quarterback switcheroo with the UCLA Bruins, securing the commitment of Joey Aguilar, who has transferred to Pasadena after the 2024 season from Appalachian State.

Naturally, some have surely wanted to be a fly on the wall of those conversations surrounding how things played out with both Iamaleava and Aguilar. Heupel was asked on Wednesday about his phone call with the latter, and he said that the call with Aguilar checked boxes that they were looking for in a player.

"I think the maturity that he demonstrated on the phone, just get a chance to go through his history, what matters to him, and what he's looking for, what he cares about, fit the culture piece of it, and obviously I had studied the film as well. So, I felt like it had a chance to be a really good fit at that point."

Aguilar is a player who has a level of confidence on the field that is hard to argue with, as he's shown a willingness to take risks and push the football down the field. That aggressiveness is something that offensive coordinator Joey Halzle talked about this week as far as an important factor that the coaching staff is looking for while evaluating all candidates in this quarterback competition.

However, the Vols hope they're getting the version of Aguilar that starred in 2023 rather than the one who regressed in 2024. Aguilar was the Sun Belt newcomer of the year in 2023 with 3757 yards (63.7% completion percentage), 33 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions, but those numbers dropped to 3003 yards (55.9%), 23 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions in 2024.

The battle between Aguilar, Merklinger, and MacIntyre officially began on Wednesday, the first day of fall camp practice.