College football insider gives update on Tennessee QB battle between Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger
By Mark Kern
Published:
College football is gearing up as there are only nine days until the start of the 2025 season, and teams are getting ready for what they hope is a long and successful season.
While we are this close to the start of the year, there are still teams that haven’t decided on who their quarterback is going to be. Tennessee is one of those programs, as the Vols still haven’t made a decision since Nico Iamaleava’s departure this offseason.
However, college football insider Matt Zenitz provided an update on where the Volunteers stand in the battle between Joey Aguilar and Jake Merklinger: Here’s an excerpt from Zenitz’s analysis:
This remains a competition between UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar and redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger. Those two split reps with the first-team offense during the Vols’ scrimmage last weekend. However, it does seem like Aguilar may have a slight edge in this battle at the moment. Aguilar, who was the starter at Appalachian State the last two seasons before transferring to UCLA and then eventually Tennessee following the Nico Iamaleava saga, threw for 6,760 yards and 56 touchdowns the last two years at App State. Four-star true freshman George MacIntyre has stood out at times during camp as well, but he doesn’t seem to be a real factor in the competition at this point.
In what looked like basically a trade you would see in the NFL, Aguilar came over from UCLA after Iamaleava decided to transfer to UCLA. Whoever wins the quarterback battle has a chance to throw it to some extremely talented receivers in Mike Matthews, Chris Brazzell II and Braylon Staley.
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The Volunteers finally took that next step as they made it to the College Football Playoff last year, and they will be looking to build off that heading into the season. Tennessee will open the 2025 season against Syracuse on Aug. 30.
