"Nico Iamaleava is sick right now": UCLA QB catches strays from fans as Joey Aguilar shines bright vs. Georgia, despite Tennessee's loss

Joey Aguilar continues to have a brilliant start to life at Tennessee following another astonishing performance against Georgia on Saturday. The quarterback completed 24 of 36 passes for 371 yards and four touchdowns in his SEC debut as the Volunteers suffered a 44-41 loss.

Aguilar’s arrival in Knoxville in the spring was a dramatic one. He had transferred to UCLA during the winter after two seasons at Appalachian State. However, he found himself joining the Volunteers after Nico Iamaleava unexpectedly left the program to team up with the Bruins.

Iamaleava decided to renegotiate his NIL contract with Tennessee at the tail end of the spring camp, leading to a crumble in his relationship with the program. His transfer to UCLA would see the Volunteers opt to secure the service of Joey Aguilar amid lots of uncertainties.

Following his performance in Knoxville so far, many fans are trolling Nico Iamaleava, who led the offense to the playoffs last season. The redshirt sophomore has failed to get things running in his new destination, having suffered a loss in each of his three games with the Bruins.

Here's a look at some of the reactions online:

Josh Heupel and Kirby Smart commend Joey Aguilar’s performance

Joey Aguilar's performance at Neyland Stadium on Saturday caught the attention of both coaches. His coach, Josh Heupel, gave a lot of credit to the quarterback in his post-game press conference.

"He came out and played within himself, made plays early,” Heupel said. “Got it to guys that can go make plays. When it wasn’t going good in the second quarter, man. Super calm demeanor, like great energy, sideline demeanor, all that. So there’s a lot to love in this football game."

Georgia coach Kirby Smart also commended the display of Aguilar in the hotly contested game. The quarterback stole the show despite his team's narrow loss to the Bulldogs in their SEC opener.

“I think that is a really good football team that we just played,” Smart said. I don't think we played our best football, especially defensively. I give them a lot of credit, though. They made plays down the field. I've got a lot of respect for their quarterback.”

The performance against Georgia is expected to elevate Joey Aguilar as an early contender for the Heisman Trophy. Should he keep up the pace for the rest of the season, he has a strong chance of greatly improving his draft stock and proving many analysts wrong on their projections.

Edited by Farouk Yusuf