This offseason, former 5-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee had one of the wildest breakups in College Football's transfer portal era. The move came as a shock as Tennessee had just made the College Football Playoff and it seemed like Arch Manning would only get better with a full season of experience in the offense.
The expectations quickly fell for Tennessee as many thought that the offense wouldn't be able to operate at a high enough level to go on a run back to the playoff. On Saturday Afternoon, Tennessee got their first chance to prove that the concerns were overblown and they came out and dominated the first half on offense.
The Volunteers look supercharged without Nico Iamaleava
In the first half, the Tennessee Volunteers' offense was on fire, and they only needed to punt once, while even a drive that ended with a fumble was impressive. Against a Syracuse team that came into the season with some excitement, Joey Aguilar and the offense came out and hung 24 points on the Orange with another 7 points coming from the defense.
Joey Aguilar only completed 9 of his 18 attempts, but he picked up 179 yards and a touchdown passing, averaging nearly 20 yards per completion and just under 10 yards per attempt. As a rusher, Aguilar added 29 yards as his legs helped him keep several plays alive.
The rushing attack as a whole was beyond impressive in the first half picking up 157 yards and two touchdowns on 20 attempts averaging 7.9 yards per carry. DeSean Bishop is the most impressive of the back as he's currently at 67 yards on 7 attempts with a touchdown.
The most impressive play from the offense came when Joey Aguilar found Braylon Staley deep for a 73-yard touchdown a play in which Nico Iamaleava constantly missed on.
UCLA transfer QB Joey Aguilar hits Braylon Staley for a deep Tennessee touchdown🎯
— On3 (@On3sports) August 30, 2025
(via ABC)pic.twitter.com/jqWk9MtLk8
Tennessee will need to find a way to finish the game in the second half but, it couldn't be clearer that the offense is clicking on all cylinders early in the year. If Joey Aguilar is going to play to this level taking care of the football, Tennessee suddenly creeps back into the discussion as a College Football Playoff contender.
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