Josh Heupel’s own college experience could factor in how the Tennessee Vols use multiple quarterbacks in 2025

With the Tennessee Vols in the midst of a three-man quarterback competition (Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger, and George MacIntyre), there have been some folks (including myself) who have suggested that head coach Josh Heupel should use multiple quarterbacks to start the season (a la Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee in 2004). 

That approach, however, is unlikely to be deployed by Heupel due to his own experience as a player in a two quarterback system. 

Heupel joined 104.5 The Zone's 3HL on Tuesday at SEC Media Days in Atlanta and he was asked about the idea of playing multiple quarterbacks in 2025. 

The fifth year Vols head coach pointed to his experience at Snow College in 1998, where he split reps with Fred Salanoa, as a reason why he probably won't play multiple quarterbacks this fall. 

"I did that as a JUCO quarterback," said Heupel. "I think it's hard. We divided halves. It was a unique situation. A guy (Salanoa) that had left didn't qualify, or didn't get his last class, and came back. He was a good player. I'm still great friends with him, and we both had an opportunity to move on and go play at a high college level, too.

"If you're going to try to trade them in play in and play out, or [by] quarters, that's tough to manage. We want somebody to be the starter. We're going to find out who that is. And there's no set timetable. I don't think you can do that. You can't handcuff yourself. They've got to go earn it. And so we'll go through that."