Tennessee Football is officially on the road to the 2026 Orange & White Game with the first two practices of the spring camp slate in the books on Monday and Tuesday. The Vols will continue their workouts over the next four weeks, leading into the spring game on April 11 in Neyland Stadium.
While there are tons of storylines to discuss over the coming weeks, such as Tennessee’s new players on defense and how the coaching additions will shake things up, the big story coming out of the first two days is UT’s quarterback competition. With Joey Aguilar having moved on from the program, Tennessee will need a new starting quarterback this fall. The three players in the running for that job are redshirt freshman George MacIntyre, true freshman Faizon Brandon, and Colorado transfer Ryan Staub.
Don’t hold your breath for Tennessee to name a starting quarterback this spring, though. As Josh Heupel said on Monday, the coaching staff plans to do a lot more evaluating over the coming months before officially handing the keys to one of its players. Much of what will happen both on and off the field is part of the natural evaluation process that Tennessee is looking into.
“Don’t expect a guy to be named here during the course of spring ball,” Heupel said. “I think it’s important that all the guys in that room learn and grow throughout the course of spring, also have a chance to go back in your summer months, digest it, reinstall and come back a much better player and compete and earn it in front of their teammates as you get into training camp.”
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While Tennessee did have a quarterback competition last year, this one is different for two reasons. On one hand, it’s starting much earlier. Tennessee has the fortune of beginning its competition during spring ball this season, whereas Nico Iamaleava didn’t leave the program until after the Orange & White Game last year. On the other hand, though, there’s no quarterback in the mix who brings a ton of experience to the table like Aguilar did at App State. Yes, Ryan Staub has been in college football for multiple years now, but he had limited action during his time at Colorado, and it’s still a pretty fresh slate.
All that to say, Tennessee will have a true quarterback battle for someone to win before the fall.
“Yeah, it is open,” Heupel said on Monday. “We had that conversation with all of them as we started the winter, when they all arrived here. Had that conversation again as we were wrapping up our winter before we got into spring ball. We’ve had a couple of those battles. You guys know that we always communicate with those guys openly, transparently, communicate with those guys together.”
Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle explained what his message was to the quarterbacks was before camp started, and what he’s looking for out of them over the next handful of weeks before the summer.
“Yeah, the biggest thing, and we talked about this before we went into camp, is you can’t play tight trying not to make a mistake,” Halzle said on Tuesday. “That’s not how a job is won. You got to go cut it loose. You got to play well. You got to play hard. Show that you can make plays while taking care of the football. That’s the biggest thing. I think a lot of times guys either go one way too hard. They try to make every play and they maybe give some stuff away. And then they try to play too tight to not make a mistake, to not lose the job, and that’s not what we want to see either. So we want to see guys go out there, cut it loose, play really hard, play really fast, but then let’s be aggressive with the ball, not reckless with the ball.”
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Football coverage during spring training camp.
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