The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly When It Comes To Joey Aguilar

Image: USA Today

By Cody McClure

I have spent much of the past couple days studying Joey Aguilar’s film.

While I do not claim to be any sort of expert in dissecting film, it isn’t too hard for the average football fan to spot a few clear highs and — unfortunately — a lot more lows when watching Tennessee’s new quarterback.

The crew and I reviewed Aguilar’s 2023 game against North Carolina as well as the Cure Bowl vs. Miami (Ohio) and 2024 games against South Alabama, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina and Clemson.

Whatever you do, don’t watch Clemson.

Let’s start with a little positivity.

The Good

There is some good. Aguilar has some ability to throw the deep ball. That’s something we’ve been begging for in the Tennessee offense for the past couple of seasons.

He did a nice job slinging the rock from time to time. This was particularly on display in the North Carolina game two years ago. In fact, Aguilar’s numbers seemed to be better in 2023 in general.

He threw for 3,757 yards and 33 touchdowns with 10 interceptions two seasons ago. Compare that to 3,003 passing yards with 23 touchdowns and 14 picks a year ago.

But even with the dip in numbers in 2024, Aguilar put some impressive deep ball highlights on tape. A couple from the South Alabama game really stood out.

Another “good” when it comes to Aguilar is his ability to escape pressure. He finds a way out of the pocket in pressure situations and seems to have pretty good awareness when it comes to extending plays.

The option read also seems to be a strong part of his game based on the film we watched. He’s not the fastest guy on the field, but he’s mobile enough — that is, against the defenses on tape. We’ll see how that transitions to the SEC.

The Bad

That pretty good awareness when it comes to escaping pressure is there. But sometimes it turns to pretty bad awareness in terms of hanging on to the ball when the defense does arrive early.

Many fumbles and strips were noticeable in the film study on plays where Aguilar had to take a sack. Sometimes those would get recovered by the offense and other times they would become critical turnovers.

Aguilar has to be better about holding on to the ball in pressure situations.

Another “bad” that was noticeable was Aguilar’s somewhat irregular ability to lead receivers/put the ball in the right place.

A lot of lame balls that were seemingly just fired toward receivers. Balls landing too short on simple hitch/comeback routes. General inaccuracy on some easier-to-make throws. Of course, no one is perfect. You can find a lot of bad throws by a lot of good quarterbacks.

The problem, based on the film, was that this seemed to happen more often than not on Aguilar’s game highlights.

It would be nice to see a few more of those throws over the middle be more accurate. He’s not scared to sling it, but they’re not always on target. More on that…

The Ugly

The turnovers are a huge problem.

It’s not just the fumbles. Aguilar seems to have a real recklessness when it comes to taking care of the ball.

Like a Nathan Peterman vs. Florida type of recklessness.

Some of the interceptions he threw last year were downright shocking. And often, they would happen to come after he made a big play. Weird coincidence, maybe.

This especially stood out in the South Alabama game. Aguilar connected on a nice deep ball down the sideline but then immediately followed it up with what would have been a 100-yard pick six if one of App State’s players didn’t track the guy five yards short of the opposite end zone.

Make no mistake, reckless turnovers appear to be a real problem with Aguilar — 24 picks thrown over two years is not an acceptable number.

This is the most concerning part of his game. And I’m not knocking the kid. There’s quite a bit of talent in there. Flashes of greatness, even.

The hope is that Josh Heupel and the staff can coach some of the not-so-great instinctiveness out of him. But then again, can you really coach instinctiveness?

These are just the opinions of a guy who looks like this so don’t take my critiques too seriously and feel free to check out the film for yourself. It’s all on YouTube.

I’m no expert. I’m just a football fan.