There are multiple pivotal questions Tennessee football needs to answer this upcoming season, but perhaps none are more critical than the battle for starting quarterback. The Vols are deciding between true freshman Faizon Brandon, redshirt-freshman George MacIntyre and Colorado transfer Ryan Staub.
Josh Heupel is adamant that the competition is open between the three and will roll into fall camp. He wants to see how they respond to the spring slate over the summer and what improvements they make as the countdown to the start of the season intensifies.
However, as we enter the summer portion of the offseason, college sports insider for OutKick, Trey Wallace, made his pick. During an appearance on The Drive on FanRun, he made the prediction that it’ll be the five-star true freshman, Brandon, taking over the offense.
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“I think right now, to be honest with you, I think it’s Faizon at quarterback for Tennessee in the fall,” Wallace said. “From what I’ve heard, they were immensely surprised at his body type, as well, once he got on campus, and then where we’re at even to this week. Now think about what that’s going to look like in three months when fall camp comes around.
“I’m not trying to speak for people over there, but I’ve just heard that a little more upside to Faizon than there is MacIntyre. And MacIntyre is going to have to pull off a Hail Mary, in my opinion, because he’s also had a year and a half more than Faizon to build up camaraderie with his teammates. I’ve been told, and again, I’m not trying to diminish MacIntyre, but what I am saying is if he didn’t have that bad boy locked up or at least leaning in your favor coming out of spring with all the experience you’ve had in Knoxville, that is a problem.
“And so, we’ll see where it goes. I think the good part about it is the communication that Halzle had with Faizon before he even arrived on campus and already had the playbook. So it’s not as if he came in and was like, ‘Okay, I got to learn this on day one.’ He had that, essentially, a year before he even got on campus.”
“To be honest with you, I think it’s Faizon at quarterback for Tennessee” – @TreyWallace breaking down Vols Football in 2026
📻https://t.co/XjlRCfMqKk pic.twitter.com/cOP8iyyW2Y
— FOX Sports Knoxville (@FOXSportsKnox) May 8, 2026
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Brandon just completed spring camp and, by all accounts, had a successful first stint going through practices as a college football player. The slate concluded with the annual Orange & White Game, in which head coach Josh Heupel kept things mostly vanilla in his first public showing.
“First of all, Faizon’s a great player,” Heupel said about Brandon on signing day “We had an opportunity to watch him on the basketball court, extremely explosive, great touch, had great presence and bodies in motion. You see that on the football tape, obviously as well. He’s played at an elite level for a long time. His body continued to develop. He’s got a great mind. He’s extremely quick-minded.
“You combine all those factors, really excited about having him in the quarterback room and competing next fall. Anytime you’re able to get a quarterback that’s at that level and is made of the right things, he’s able to develop relationships with guys and help attract them. And he certainly did that in this recruiting class, really on both sides of the football.”
Brandon was a five-star prospect, according to 247. He spent a good bit of the cycle as the No. 1 overall recruit in the class, but fell to No. 2 in the recruiting service’s final update. He is the No. 2 quarterback, behind Houston commit Keisean Henderson, and the top-ranked player out of North Carolina.
