Joey Aguilar tops 3,000 yards passing, chasing Peyton Manning's Tennessee football record
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GAINESVILLE, FL — Joey Aguilar became the fifth Tennessee quarterback to pass for 3,000 yards in a season by reaching the mark against Florida on Nov. 22.
He reached the mark with a 19-yard pass to Chris Brazzell in the first quarter.
It's an exclusive club led by Peyton Manning, who passed for 3,000 yards in two different seasons (1996-97). Tyler Bray (2012), Erik Ainge (2007) and Hendon Hooker (2022) also reached that milestone in a season.
Aguilar entered the Florida game leading the SEC with 2,941 passing yards, and he's moving up UT's single-season list. He climbed past a crowded field from 12th to sixth early in the Florida game en route to 3,000 yards.
Now Aguilar can chase Manning's record in the final stretch of the 2025 season.
Here is UT’s all-time list for single-season passing yards:
- Peyton Manning: 3,819 yards (1997)
- Tyler Bray: 3,612 yards (2012)
- Erik Ainge: 3,522 yards (2007)
- Peyton Manning: 3,287 yards (1996)
- Hendon Hooker: 3,135 yards (2022)
- Joey Aguilar: 3,000+ yards (2025)
Why Manning's bowl stats didn't count but Aguilar's will
Aguilar could get 13 games to break Manning's record, which was set in 12 games. UT plays Vanderbilt on Nov. 29 (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC or ESPN) to end the regular season, and then Aguilar presumably would play in the bowl game.
The NCAA didn’t start counting bowl stats toward cumulative season stats until 2002, and it does not retroactively count bowl stats prior to that. That means Manning's record of 3,819 yards in the 1997 season included 11 regular-season games and the SEC Championship game. His final 134-yard outing didn’t count from a loss to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
Bray played 12 games in 2012 because UT didn’t make a bowl game. Ainge played 14 games in 2007, including the SEC title game and the Outback Bowl. Hooker played 11 games in 2022 before suffering a torn ACL.
This is Aguilar's lone season at Tennessee, so his career stats won't register in the Vols record book. But he is approaching 10,000 passing yards in his FBS career, which includes two seasons at Appalachian State and this season at Tennessee to finish his eligibility. He entered the Florida game with 9,701 yards.
Aguilar has passed for at least 200 yards in all 34 starts of his Division I career, including 10 at UT and 24 at Appalachian State. That’s the longest active streak in FBS.
Aguilar also played two seasons in junior college, but those stats don't count in his Division I career.
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing atknoxnews.com/subscribe.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Joey Aguilar tops 3,000 yards passing, chasing Peyton Manning Tennessee football record
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