In Coach Josh Heupel’s fifth season, the Vols are banking on a productive team ethos.
On UT Media Day Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach Joey Halzle described the competition among quarterbacks Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger, and George MacIntyre by harking back to the 2021 competition between Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton III, when Milton won the starting spot, Hooker accepted his role, then excelled when Milton was injured. In 2022, when the roles were reversed, Milton accepted his role as backup and worked to get better. “Today,” said Halzle, “they’re still best friends and both playing in the NFL. That’s the culture that we want on this team.”
Head Coach Josh Heupel, Halzle, Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks, and their players talk a lot about team culture. This year’s QB competition, said Heupel, will be won, “Not in one throw. Not one day. Consistency is important. It’s important that the staff sees that. But most importantly, the players need to see that. It’s transparent. It’s real, and the whole team can see it.” Echoed Halzle, “Someone’s gotta step up and take it.”
In this, Heupel’s fifth season, the team culture is baked into its DNA or it’s not. The culture was tested when the explosive and dynamic Boo Carter missed a few voluntary workouts in the summer. “A guy like that, in my opinion,” said tight end Miles Kitselman at SEC Media Days, “is a Swiss Army Knife. He’s so good in all three phases of the game,” that is, as a defensive back, possible Deion Sanders-type receiver, and one of the top punt returners in the SEC. The team’s leadership council dealt with his absences. “Boo has to accomplish some things to get back on the field,” said Heupel at Media Day. “Nobody is bigger than the Power T.”
We all know how the team culture prevailed during Nico Iamaleava’s Shakespearean downfall. Or was it Greek tragedy, illustrating too clearly the meaning of the word hubris? (Translated into East Tennessean, “gettin’ too big for yer britches.”) The Athletic generously described Nico as having been “a good quarterback, not a great one.” The less generous among us think back to that last play against Arkansas, when Nico inexplicably ended the game by running the ball out of bounds rather than heaving it up for a chance of a score and a victory. We also remember the expression on Nico’s face before the playoff game at Ohio State. He looked frightened. This was understandable considering the Buckeye tsunami that was about to wash the Vols out of the tournament. But Nico also looked like didn’t want to be there. And what do you know? He didn’t. As the Greek chorus might have predicted, his audacity in asking to double his NIL money on the heels of that loss will echo in the annals of college football lore forever. It might end up on his gravestone.
“The Ohio State game really left a sour taste in our mouths,” said defensive tackle Jaxson Moi at Media Day. “Looking back, we were close, but we know we could do more.” Of Aguilar—who moved like a chess piece from UCLA after Nico arrived there—Moi said, “Joey is a calm, cool dude. He’s a Cali guy, just like me.”
Carlos Lopez, who this season is broadcasting Vols games in Spanish across a few nations, asked Aguilar whether he is a role model for young Latinos. (Aguilar’s dad is a first-generation Mexican American; his mom is Puerto Rican.) “It’s a blessing for me to go out there and represent and spread joy,” Aguilar replied. Lopez then asked if Joey knew how to say, “Let’s Go Vols” in Spanish, then quickly offered, “Vamos Vols!”
Aguilar has the refreshing aura of an underdog committed to proving himself. As he reminded reporters at UT Media Day, he had no scholarship offers coming out of Freedom High School in Oakley, California, despite throwing for 3,074 yards and 32 touchdowns as a senior. He walked on at City College of San Francisco and redshirted. He took the 2020 season off because of COVID, then played two seasons for Diablo Valley Community College in central California. He threw for almost 3,000 yards in two seasons, enough to get a scholarship to Appalachian State. There, he admitted, “’23 was better than ‘24. Life can go here,” he said, angling his flat palm upward—3,757 passing yards and 32 TD passes, “and life can go here,” angling his palm downward—3,003 yards and 23 touchdowns. Still, he was recruited by UCLA and worked out with the Bruins in the spring, dutifully learning the offense. When Nico arrived in Westwood, Joey put out feelers. On a phone call, Heupel felt Aguilar fit into “the culture piece.” Arriving in Knoxville in May, he dug into the playbook and installed the offenses on his own, exactly as the rest of the team had done in spring practice. “That’s how I go about my day,” he said at Media Day. “I put my head down and grind. I wanted to get that playbook down.” He also watched the film of every offensive play from last year and spring practice. Aguilar has the extra year of eligibility thanks to a court’s ruling on behalf of Vanderbilt’s Bama-slaying QB Diego Pavia that the NCAA was violating anti-trust laws in counting junior college years in calculating eligibility.
Speaking of underdogs, running back DeSean Bishop takes over for SEC Player of the Year Dylan Sampson. (Peyton Lewis will be in the backfield with him, along with Duke transfer Star Thomas.) Bishop walked on at UT from Karns High. “They doubted me back at Karns,” he told reporters. He had to prove himself at UT and earned a scholarship in 2025. “The glory of proving people wrong is so satisfying. There’s no greater feeling. I’m still trying to prove it.” Bishop has worked hard in the weight room. “That dude is ripped,” confirmed left tackle Lance Heard, the lone returnee on the offensive line, who has shed some 38 pounds, down to 315, to make himself quicker with his footwork.
Almost half the UT roster is made up of talented freshmen and redshirt freshmen. They will either respond to the culture and contribute, or not. This is the way successful programs are built. As Heupel and his coaches often say, “Young guys don’t have time to be young.” Five-star freshman right tackle David Sanders, for example, came to spring training with a 6-foot-six, 270-pound high schooler’s body. He hit the weight room and added 38 pounds since spring practice. Next to him, redshirt freshman Jesse Perry is the likely starter at right guard. Wendell Moe, an All-Pac-12 transfer from Arizona is at left guard. Redshirt freshman William Satterwhite and Notre Dame transfer Sam Pendleton are vying for the key starting spot at center. Asked about the identity of the offensive line, Heard said, “Whenever we step on the field, we want people to say, ‘Damn, those boys play hard as hell.’ ”
With a surfeit of talent at tight end—Ethan Davis, and veteran transfers Miles Kitselman (from Bama in 2024), McCallan Castles (UC Davis), and Holden Staes (Notre Dame)—Aguilar can get key completions by looking their way. Talented receivers Mike Matthews, Chris Brazzell, redshirt freshmen Braylon Staley and Bama transfer Amari Jefferson need to figure out how to get open.
The defensive backfield is also overflowing with talent, starting with Boo Carter at nickelback, All-America Oregon State-transfer cornerback Jermod McCoy (rehabbing from a torn ACL), Colorado transfer Colton Hood, Temple transfer Jalen McMurry, and safeties Andre Turrentine, Edrees Farooq, Kaleb Beasley, Rickey Gibson III, who says he has grown in his awareness of the game. “Sometimes I was, like, air-headed,” he said of last year.
Middle linebacker Jeremiah Telander, with his cocky grin and cheery demeanor, resembles a young Dennis Quaid, especially as he talks about his fellow charismatic leader at weakside linebacker, Arion Carter. “That’s my guy,” said a Telander on media day. “We were roommates when we first got here. I can’t tell you how proud of each other we are. It’s so great to have A.C. by my side.” Telander, another underdog of sorts, said, “We took leaps in our mentality. I can’t wait to see what happens.”
In front of them, are tackle Bryson Eason, edge rushers Joshua Josephs, Caleb Herring, and Jordan Ross, and defensive end Dominic Bailey, who echoed the goal of making it further than last year, “Past the first round of the playoffs,” said Bailey. “Losing that game gave everybody a fire. In terms of preparation, we learned how much preparation was needed.”
Said Jaxson Moi, “I feel that I can showcase my pass rush more this year. The three core values of the defense are “smart, tough, relentless. It all starts with the culture.”
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