{"id":493309,"date":"2026-02-20T22:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493309\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:16:10","slug":"qb-joey-aguilar-reportedly-ineligible-to-play-for-tennessee-in-2026-after-injunction-denied-will-attend-nfl-combine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493309\/","title":{"rendered":"QB Joey Aguilar reportedly ineligible to play for Tennessee in 2026 after injunction denied, will attend NFL combine"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar received a temporary restraining order earlier this month that opened the door to him playing for the Volunteers next season<\/a>, the 24-year-old won’t be eligible for the 2026 campaign, after all.<\/p>\n

A Knoxville judge denied Aguilar’s preliminary injunction for another year of eligibility, according to multiple<\/a> reports<\/a> on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Aguilar can request an interim appeal, according to On3’s Chris Low<\/a>, who also reported, however, that the appellate court doesn’t have to grant it.<\/p>\n

Aguilar will attend next week’s NFL combine, per Low and ESPN’s Pete Thamel<\/a>. Tennessee is poised to have a new starting quarterback for the fifth season in a row.<\/p>\n

The Vols’ competition under center is expected to feature George MacIntyre, Faizon Brandon and Ryan Staub. MacIntyre played sparingly as a true freshman this past season. Staub spent the past three seasons at Colorado, where he tossed three touchdowns and four interceptions in five appearances, including one start, during the 2025 campaign. And Brandon was a five-star recruit and the No. 9 overall prospect in the 2026 class, according to the Rivals industry ranking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tennessee is coming off an 8-5 season and is two seasons removed from its first-ever College Football Playoff appearance.<\/p>\n

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Aguilar has been vying for one more college season. He’s already got seven years of college football under his belt, but he’s played just three seasons in the NCAA, which traditionally permits athletes to play four seasons within a five-year span. Although junior colleges aren’t part of the NCAA, the NCAA counts seasons spent in JUCO toward that eligibility clock.<\/p>\n

Aguilar’s case centered more around Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia\u2019s lawsuit against the NCAA than Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aguilar began his college career in the JUCO ranks at City College of San Francisco. He redshirted in his first season of junior college football in 2019 before the 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He transferred and played two more seasons at nearby Diablo Valley Community College prior to making the move to Appalachian State ahead of the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

After two seasons at App State, Aguilar transferred to UCLA to compete for the Bruins\u2019 starting job. In a matter of months, he headed to Tennessee after Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava transferred to UCLA during spring practice.<\/p>\n

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Pavia, who recently completed his college career, had contended that his time at a junior college should not count against his NCAA eligibility clock. Pavia\u2019s college career began a season after Aguilar\u2019s though.<\/p>\n

Chambliss, meanwhile, successfully argued that he should have been given a medical redshirt by the NCAA for the 2022 season. Chambliss, who was at Division II Ferris State at the time, didn\u2019t dress for a game that season.<\/p>\n

In his one season at Tennessee, Aguilar completed 67.3% of his passes while throwing for 3,565 yards and 24 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. Over his three-year FBS career, he accumulated 80 touchdown passes and 34 picks while averaging 8.2 yards per attempt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar received a temporary restraining order earlier this month that opened the door to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,594,248900,96639,704,593,96638,248901,85,973,8451,248902],"class_list":["post-493309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-college-football","tag-george-macintyre","tag-joey-aguilar","tag-ncaa","tag-nfl","tag-nico-iamaleava","tag-ryan-staub","tag-sports","tag-tennessee","tag-ucla","tag-vanderbilt-quarterback"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}