Josh Heupel quietly made his QB2 decision right before Tennessee's Week 1 win

While everyone was focused on Tennessee football and Joey Aguilar putting on a show in the Week 1 win over Syracuse, some of us forgot that Josh Heupel had a pretty important quarterback decision to make. We're talking about the backup job.

After Aguilar was named the starter, Heupel waited all the way until Saturday morning to announce via the depth chart that Jake Merklinger is the QB2 for the Vols this season over true freshman George MacIntyre. This was another close battle, but it looks like Merklinger's extra year on campus gave him the advantage here:

Joey Aguilar delivers incredible Tennessee quote after his dream Vols debut

Jake Merklinger was officially named Tennessee's backup quarterback by Josh Heupel

On Saturday, there was a bit of a scare when Aguilar went down and needed to go into the medical tent. As soon as that happened, Merklinger started getting loose a bit on the sidelines just in case Aguilar was going to have to miss some action.

Thankfully, Aguilar was just fine and an injury was avoided. The App State transfer ended up having a dream debut for the Vols, throwing for 247 yards and three touchdowns. His 73-yard TD to Braylon Staley was a thing of beauty and it's easily one of the best throws thus far this season in college football.

Thanks to how great he looked, Vols fans are now big-time believers in this team being able to potentially get back to the College Football Playoff after doing so in 2024. Aguilar is going to play a monster part there should UT get that job done.

As for the backups, no one wants to see Aguilar go down, but if Tennessee is in a blowout-win situation in Week 2 against East Tennessee State, we now know that Merklinger will be the one to take the field to close things out. And if Aguilar does have to miss some time for any reason this fall, the former 4-star signee will be ready to go if Heupel ends up calling his number.