ATLANTA – The Tennessee Volunteers opened its 2025 slate with a trip to Mercedes Benz Stadium to take on Syracuse.
The Vols’ first play from scrimmage told you everything you needed to know about what this Power 4 match would turn out to be.
Joey Aguilar, who made his way to Rocky Top in May and earned the starting job four months later, looked as comfortable as ever as QB1 for Tennessee.
The first play of the game, Aguilar faked the hand off and waited in the pocket to connect with Mike Matthews on a crossing route.
The safe option would’ve been to hand it off.
Tennessee didn’t play it safe.
They took that moment to highlight the confidence they had in Aguilar.
All off season, head coach Josh Heupel emphasized the ‘comfort and control’ Aguilar had of the system.
That play proved that.
“All week of practice, just running that play,” said Aguilar. “Just talking through everything. Coach (Josh Heupel) asked me if I felt comfortable with that. I did. Mike just popped open, gave him a nice, easy ball, let him go play.”
The rest of the game demonstrated his 13-yard pass to Mike Matthews wasn’t a fluke.
Just five of his 16 completions went for less than 10 yards. Aguilar connected with six different receivers for 247 yards.
Aguilar’s biggest play of the game came after a near costly misfire on the previous drive.
Late in the first quarter, Aguilar’s handoff to Star Thomas resulted in a fumble with Syracuse recovering.
A miscue that is maybe more representative of how new the team is and where more time together could resolve that kind of miscommunication.
The impressive part is how Tennessee responded.
“I get excited obviously good plays, but don’t get too down on bad plays. Everybody looks to me on the team, so I got to keep that composure and just keep going,” said Aguilar.
The Vols got the ball back early in the second quarter. The second play, Aguilar let it rip.
Aguilar connected with redshirt-freshman Braylon Staley for a 73-yard touchdown.
“We called the play to either to me or Mike (Matthews),” said Staley. “I felt like I had the right read on it. Ran the post route, I was open. Touchdown (smiling).”
Now the score was 17-7 Tennessee.
Still, Heupel and company had confidence in Aguilar and their offense to pull off the play.
“(The) protection was good on that one,” said Heupel. “Braylon did a great job getting on top of the defense. Joey threw the deep ball well today. There’s some things that we can be better at: handling our skill, some things on the protection piece on a couple of ’em.”
That play also stood out because Tennessee only completed two such plays in 2024. A 73-yard completion against Mississippi State and an 86-yard completion versus Vanderbilt.
Tennessee found its first of 2025 in the second quarter of its first game.
“It was good to see us hit some down-the-field shots today. That’s got to be a part of who we are as we move forward,” said Heupel.
Staley finished with 95 yards on four receptions and after the game praised Aguilar for his command of the offense.
“Man, truly, honestly it’s a blessing to have a quarterback like that in the room,” said Staley. “He’s a leader. He’s out there confident. I felt like we was all confident with him. We had his back. When the ball was in the air, we went to get the ball. When he handed the ball off, the running backs did their thing. I feel like we did a really good job on offense (Saturday).”
Heupel added, “Braylon played well. I thought all the wideouts handled themselves extremely well (Saturday).”
