Among SEC quarterbacks, the offseason spotlight has been firmly on Trinidad Chamliss’s eligibility fight to return to Ole Miss. That has left Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar to contest his eligibility status in relative obscurity.
Aguilar has played three years of FBS football, two at Appalachian State and one at Tennessee, after playing two years for Diablo Valley Community College in central California. He is suing the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility, and though Tennessee’s Transfer Portal pursuits of Ty Simpson and Sam Leavitt don’t inspire much confidence, he received a positive update on Friday.
Aguilar’s lawsuit was a joint lawsuit with Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia until Friday. That’s when he was granted a voluntary dismissal as a plaintiff in the Pavia lawsuit, which he joined in November. Aguilar has his own lawyer, separate from Pavia, Cam Norris, whom he hired in January. Norris has previously represented Donald Trump and has argued and defeated the NCAA on Tennessee’s behalf in the school’s case against the NCAA’s NIL rules.
This move likely means that Aguilar is expected to file his own lawsuit, separate from Pavia’s case. Pavia received a preliminary injunction to play in 2025, his sixth season of college football.
Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar was granted voluntary dismissal as a plaintiff from the Diego Pavia eligibility lawsuit, according to court documents.
— On3 NIL (@On3NIL) January 30, 2026
Aguilar has hired his own lawyer, Cam Norris, who represented President Donald Trump in 2022 and previously defeated the NCAA in court… pic.twitter.com/I5avIHOlRF
Joey Aguilar still fighting for an additional season of eligibility
For Aguilar, it makes sense to fight for additional eligibility. He’s not an NFL quarterback, and there is no field where he could make upwards of a million dollars a year if he left school. His eligibility case is a seven-figure decision for Aguilar, and it has major implications for Josh Heupel and the Volunteers as well.
Tennessee found itself at the bottom of the transfer portal QB pecking order this offseason, with Simpson leaving Alabama for the NFL, Leavitt committing to LSU, and Miami prying Darian Mensah away from Duke. Tennessee was the only QB-needy powerhouse left without a chair when the music stopped.
That has created an uneasy situation for Heupel, whose program took a step back in 2025 after a College Football Playoff appearance the year prior. That regression was in part due to Nico Iamaleava’s decision to leave Tennessee for UCLA, which led to Aguilar’s arrival in Knoxville.
Aguilar is not an elite SEC quarterback. He doesn’t have the physical tools of a future NFL player at the position, but he’s experienced, accurate, and willing to point and shoot in Heupel’s QB-friendly system. That led to an offense that ranked 18th in adjusted EPA/play and 30th in EPA/dropback last season.
The defense was the major problem for the Vols last year, and Jim Knowles arrival as Heupel’s defensive coordinator this offseason should go a long way to fix that.
If Aguilar gets another year of eligibility, Tennessee could be seen as a fringe SEC contender. Without him, the Vols will likely be forced to turn to inexperienced redshirt freshman George MacIntyre, who redshirted in 2025, or five-star true freshman Faizon Brandon.