Tennessee is beginning May with three scholarship quarterbacks, the same number the Volunteers possessed at the start of April.
The obvious difference is that Nico Iamaleava is transferring out of Knoxville to UCLA and that Joey Aguilar recently practiced at UCLA but soon will be arriving at Tennessee. Aguilar, who played the past two seasons at Appalachian State before entering the NCAA transfer portal, will join a quarterback room that contains redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre.
“I’m excited about the guys who are in the room,” Vols fifth-year coach Josh Heupel said in a news conference before a Wednesday night appearance at the Big Orange Caravan in Nashville. “They’re highly competitive. They’re smart. There is a lot of growth that goes into where we’re at as a position room and individually to where they need to get to before we get to training camp. Obviously we’ve got to get Joey here and start the process of doing everything we do from fundamentals to the schemes to what you’re going to see on the defensive side of the ball and mastering all those things.
“Our young quarterbacks, Jake and George, are going to continue to grow in that process as well. At the end of the day, it’s every player’s responsibility to learn it, earn it and take the job.”
Iamaleava, a five-star signee in Tennessee’s 2023 class, redshirted his first season with the Vols but started in their 35-0 rout of Iowa in the Citrus Bowl. In his first full year as the starter, he helped guide Tennessee to a 10-2 regular season and a berth in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, with the Vols losing 42-17 in the first round at eventual national champion Ohio State.