Regardless of the many good things that have happened, No. 23 Tennessee’s 2025 football season will be remembered for three colossal blunders.
- Max Gilbert’s missed 48-yard field goal at the end of regulation against Georgia.
- Joey Aguilar’s interception at the 1-yard line just before halftime against Alabama that turned what could have been a two-point Crimson Tide lead into 16 points.
- Aguilar’s first-quarter fumble against Oklahoma that was returned 71 yards for a Sooner TD. Leading 7-0, the Volunteers were driving to take a two-score lead when that happened.
Those three goofs turned a promising season into a trip to the Music City Bowl, or some such dreary destination. The 12-team College Football Playoff has changed the culture and the mindset of the game.
Once Loss No. 3 comes around, the calendar turns and getting ready for 2026 is the next challenge — though no coach or player would publicly admit it.
While his team was still wallowing in the despair of Saturday night’s 33-27 loss to Oklahoma, coach Josh Heupel said he turned a bit philosophical with his players on how they should process the setback.
“I told them, ‘You’ve got a choice to make, like life,’” Heupel said. “‘It’s about how you’re going to respond.’”
Opportunities still exist
Tennessee will have an open date to mourn the loss an objective the Vols have been chasing since spring practice. After that, it’s back to work with New Mexico State, Florida and Vanderbilt.
There are opportunities.
New Mexico State is a chance for the Vols to get their aggression out. Florida has a 10-game home winning streak against Tennessee and the Vols might be able to derail Vandy’s playoff chances in the season finale.
Whether or not those manufactured reasons to play hard and keep improving are enough to keep the group from imploding remains to be seen.
Will the QB dynamic change?
What will be interesting to see will be how Heupel handles his personnel.
For starters, the quarterback dynamic may change a bit. Now that the stakes aren’t quite as high, it’s time to see if Jake Merklinger will be the answer to replace Aguilar next year.
Aguilar and Merklinger should each play a half against New Mexico State. Beyond that, it’s imperative to see how Merklinger responds under fire with live bullets whizzing by him.
If Merklinger’s not polished, do they give freshman George MacIntyre a shot, plan on incoming five-star Faizon Brandon being a quick study, or plan on dipping into the transfer portal again?
Whatever the situation, there will be some big decisions looming. In college football today, having three quality quarterbacks on the roster is almost impossible. Someone is bound to jump ship once the handwriting is on the wall.
Preparations for ’26 have begun
Heupel will also have to figure out what happened to his run game. The Vols generated just 63 total yards on 35 carries against the Sooners. Once they were one-dimensional, they were much easier to defend even if Aguilar was just seven yards shy of 400.
Tennessee’s defense was good enough to keep Oklahoma out of the end zone in the first half (the only TD was the returned fumble), but it wasn’t enough to keep the Vols from trailing 16-10.
Whatever the case, the next 13 days may determine the trajectory of the program through spring and fall preparations for the 2026 season.
As Heupel said, there are choices to be made.