Tennessee football is set to begin a quarterback battle for the second-straight offseason in the wake of Joey Aguilar officially not being granted a preliminary injunction on Friday. When spring camp begins on March 16, it’ll be the beginning of a three-man race for the starting gig between George MacIntyre, Faizon Brandon and Ryan Staub.
MacIntyre is the lone returner, but didn’t play much as a true freshman in 2025. He was the third-string option behind Aguilar and Jake Merklinger, who has since transferred to UConn.
Brandon joins as the youngest option. A five-star recruit, he was considered the No. 3 player and signal caller in the 2026 class by 247 and joins as a true freshman.
Staub is the most experienced, but not in the SEC. He joins as a transfer from Colorado, who has appeared in 10 games and thrown for 681 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions in three years with the Buffs.
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With spring camp yet to begin, it’s way too early to actually make a truly informed prediction on who Tennessee’s starter will be next season. Nonetheless, the RTI Staff gives our thoughts on where things stand in February.
Ric Butler
With the disclaimer that anything can change over the next few months with spring ball, summer workouts, and fall training camp, I’m going to set this thing as a two-horse race as we exit February. All respect to Ryan Staub, I just think that MacIntyre and Brandon have a different level of skills and the starting job will rest between one of them.
I’ll go ahead and say MacIntyre. He’s been in the system for a year, he showed some nice flashes during the QB battle last fall, and he’s a strong passer. With Derek Owings now being the strength coach, I’d imagine he starts to put on some more bulk here this offseason, too. I think that has to be an exciting development for his future. Brandon is uber-talented, though. Could he start at some point? Possibly. But we’ll save that conversation for down the road.
Prediction: George MacIntyre
Ryan Schumpert
Tennessee has two talented quarterbacks but they’re just both so young and inexperienced. It’s easy to see why Josh Heupel was keen on getting an experienced Joey Aguilar back for another year. It would have raised the floor this season while giving Heupel and his staff another year to assess what they have in George MacIntyre and Faizon Brandon.
Prediction: George MacIntyre
Ryan Sylvia
George MacIntyre is looked at as the favorite to win due to his year in the system. I think that may be a little overblown, though. Sure, it’s a leg up, but Josh Heupel can’t afford to simply go with the presumed safe option just because they may have a bit better grasp of the offense.
The winner of the job this year has long-term implications. All three options have multiple years of eligibility, and neither MacIntyre nor Brandon will be eligible for the NFL draft after the 2026 season. That means the winner of this year’s competition may very well be the starter in 2027, as well.
If Heupel and his staff are confident that Brandon is the future, it’d make a lot of sense to give him the keys to the offense as a true freshman. There’s certainly an urgency to win in 2026 after a down year in 2025, but Brandon has the talent to do exactly that with the right pieces around him and what you’d hope is an improved defense. He’s shown fantastic accuracy on short, intermediate and long passes and should be able to pick up the offense in stride.
The biggest hit on my pick is that Brandon missed a lot of his senior year due to injury, though he seems to be healthy heading into spring camp.
Prediction: Faizon Brandon
Fan Vote
Following the Joey Aguilar decision, we put up polls on both the Rocky Top Insider X (Twitter) and Instagram accounts. We simply asked: Who will be Tennessee’s starter next season?
Here are the results.
X Prediction:
George MacIntyre – 79.6%
Faizon Brandon – 17.8%
Ryan Staub – 2.6%
Instagram Prediction:
George MacIntyre – 68%
Faizon Brandon – 28%
Ryan Staub – 4%
