Tennessee to sign transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar to replace Nico Iamaleava: report

After losing starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava to the transfer portal, Tennessee was immediately interested in Joey Aguilar, the UCLA signal caller he'll replace.

Joey Aguilar is hitting the portal, and Tennessee was interested. / James Guillory-Imagn Images

What might be called college football’s first “trade” is set to take place, as quarterback Joey Aguilar will sign with Tennessee to replace Nico Iamaleava, who took Aguilar’s place at UCLA, according to ESPN’s Chris Low.

Aguilar will make money at Tennessee similar to what he received at UCLA, where he had roughly $1.2 million left on his current deal, about what he’ll make with the Volunteers, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Tennessee was suddenly in the market for a quarterback after the bombshell transfer of starter Nico Iamaleava during the spring following his reported holdout for more NIL money.

Iamaleava departed the Volunteers and announced he will transfer to UCLA, where Aguilar had previously committed in the hopes of leading that offense.

When the Iamaleava move went public, it was rumored that Aguilar would likely depart UCLA and look for a starting opportunity elsewhere this season.

Vols head coach Josh Heupel confirmed he and his staff would scout a replacement for Iamaleava in the transfer portal after being left with two scholarship quarterbacks, both inexperienced.

Aguilar originally transferred to UCLA from Appalachian State this offseason after a productive career leading the Mountaineers’ offense.

The quarterback threw for more than 3,000 yards in both his years at the school, and his 3,003 yards were the most among Sun Belt quarterbacks last season.

The year before, Aguilar posted 3,757 yards passing with 23 touchdowns in 14 games as the Mountaineers went 9-5 and played for the conference title.

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How the college football transfer portal works

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school’s compliance office.

Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player’s name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.

The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.

The database includes the player’s name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.

Once a player’s name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.

Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him.

And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn’t have to give him another scholarship.

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