Joey Aguilar has not yet joined Tennessee team, timeline, reason revealed

On Tuesday, UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster said that transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava has to finish his classes at Tennessee before he can officially join the team, per ESPN’s Chris Low. The same is true for Joey Aguilar, who is transferring from UCLA to Tennessee.

UCLA’s final exams are reportedly from June 9-13. It’s unclear whether Aguilar will be able to take these online but they must be completed before he can officially begin practicing with the team.

Aguilar transferred to UCLA in December after spending two seasons at Appalachian State. However, he opted to enter the transfer portal after the Bruins signed Iamaleava on Sunday. Iamaleava likely would’ve started over Aguilar next season.

Now, Aguilar is simply swapping places with Iamaleava and will look to have even more success at Tennessee than his predecessor. In his two seasons at Appalachian State, Aguilar amassed 6,760 passing yards and 56 touchdowns while throwing 24 interceptions.

In the ground game, Aguilar recorded 456 total rushing yards and five scores. His 3,757 passing yards in the 2023 campaign are the most in a single season in program history. He also shattered the record for passing touchdowns (33) in a single season that year.

Evidently, oddsmakers expect Aguilar to be more successful than Iamaleava next season. According to FanDuel, Aguilar has +4500 odds to win the Heisman Trophy next season while Iamaleava is sitting at +8000.

In fairness, team success plays a large role in Heisman voting and there was a serious discrepancy between the two programs in that category last season. Tennessee went 10-2 during the regular season and made its first College Football Playoff appearance.

In comparison, UCLA floundered in its first season under head coach DeShaun Foster, posting a 5-7 record and missing out on bowl season. If Aguilar can adjust to the difficulty of SEC competition, he should have more weapons around him than Iamaleava in the upcoming season.

According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, Tennessee is expected to pay Aguilar up to seven figures less than Iamaleava’s scheduled $2.4 million compensation. In a column on Monday, On3’s Ari Wasserman raved about the opportunity in front of Joey Aguilar.

“Emerging from the myst of a dysfunctional situation is one of the coolest stories college football has seen recently,” Wasserman wrote. “Yes, it was basically the first trade in modern transfer portal history. But, more importantly, Aguilar suddenly finds himself at a more prominent program with a chance to be a Tennessee folk hero for generations. You can’t make this stuff up.”