It only took 1 quarter vs. Georgia for Joey Aguilar to surpass Nico Iamaleava in key stat
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Joey Aguilar had a first quarter to remember on Saturday afternoon against Georgia.
The new Tennessee quarterback threw for a remarkable 213 yards in the opening stanza. He completed all 14 of his pass attempts and threw a 72-yard touchdown pass to Chris Brazzell to give the Vols an early 14-17 lead.
That level of production, of course, is not normal for a first quarter. That’s the most passing yards any Tennessee quarterback has produced in the first quarter of any game since at least 2015. No other Vols quarterback over the last decade has thrown for even 180 yards in the opening quarter of a game.
Perhaps more notably, it’s also more passing yards than Nico Iamaleava threw for in the entirety of Tennessee’s 2024 loss to the Bulldogs. Last year, Iamaleava managed just 167 yards on 33 pass attempts in a 31-17 loss to the Bulldogs in Athens.
With that 72-yard score to Brazzell, Aguilar now already has 2 70+ yard completions this season. That’s how many the Vols had through all of 2024. Here’s a look at that TD:
Regardless of how this game plays out, it seems Tennessee is currently coming out ahead with regards to its messy separation from Iamaleava back in the spring. Now at UCLA, Iamaleava and the Bruins moved to 0-3 on the season on Friday night after losing to New Mexico in blowout fashion.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
