The Joey Aguilar debut for Tennessee football quite literally could not have gone much better. He tossed for 247 yards and three touchdowns, powering the Vols to a 45-26 win. On the other side of the 'QB trade' from this offseason, things went worse than anyone could have imagined for UCLA.
Nico Iamaleava, the former 5-star Tennessee signee, took the field for his first Bruins start and the hype was through the roof for him going up against Utah. Iamaleava missed several throws, including his first deep one. Had he put the ball where it needed to be, it would have been six for UCLA. Instead, he missed and it was one of the many blunders for him in a 43-10 home loss to Utah. Ouch.
Former Tennessee football QB Nico Iamaleava had a debut to forget with UCLA
With the game not kicking off until 11 p.m. ET, the majority of Vols fans were asleep after celebrating the big win over Syracuse in Week 1. However, there were also plenty of Tennessee supporters who stayed up late for a 'hate watch' session.
Hey, they might be tired right now after staying up past 2 a.m., but it was worth it for them. In the end, Iamaleava completed 11-of-22 pass attempts for 136 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Those are not the numbers anyone expected from him.
We're not going to sit here and relish in the fact that he struggled mightily to open the new season with his new team. However, the same can't be said for a lot of people all over Knoville who felt like Iamaleava and his camp betrayed the Vols this offseason.
UCLA's stadium was pretty much half empty too, which is never going to be the case for a Tennessee signal-caller at Neyland. This is something Aguilar is going to see first hand next Saturday, as he will be making his home debut against East Tennessee State.
If all goes to plan, the Vols will improve to 2-0 on the season before the monster Week 3 showdown at Neyland against the Georgia Bulldogs. Iamaleava will work to flush this loss and get ready for UNLV in Week 3, but plenty of Bruins fans already think it's going to be a long year ahead with him running the offense.