For a second straight year, the conversation dominating the Tennessee Football offseason revolves around the quarterback position and the battle for the leading signal caller in the fall. Unlike last year, though, there’s no fifth-year senior in the mix. Most reports suggest that the Vols’ battle this offseason will likely come down to either redshirt freshman George MacIntyre or true freshman Faizon Brandon.
There are plenty of other intriguing storylines around this Tennessee team, such as the defensive rebuild with multiple new coaches and players joining the program over the offseason. But this is the sport of American football, and people love to talk about quarterbacks.
MacIntyre and Brandon, along with Colorado transfer Ryan Staub, all got their work in during spring training camp in Knoxville. Josh Heupel was adamant that he wasn’t going to publicly name a starter and he held true to that word. As the Vols go through summer programming over the next few months, we won’t get a public look at any of the quarterbacks until training camp this fall.
OutKick college football reporter Trey Wallace shared some of his thoughts on Tennessee’s quarterback battle while appearing on 104.5 The Zone’s The Buck Reising Show earlier this week. He spoke with Reising and Lucas Panzica on several different topics, but did briefly mention some quick takes on the Vols’ competition in Knoxville.
“I had a conversation the other day. What’s Tennessee doing with their quarterback position? Is this going to be the Faizon thing or the MacIntyre thing? From what I’m hearing, it’s probably going to be the Faizon thing,” Wallace said. “The term ‘Hail Mary’ was thrown out to me the other day in regards to MacIntyre getting the job – and meaning, he’s had a year and a half head start on the freshman to get in and win over the locker room and learn the playbook. You know, I’m not going to sit here and talk about someone’s weight, but he could have used 15 to 20 more pounds. But again, everybody’s body’s different. My biggest thing for him is knowing the offense.”
MacIntyre spent his true freshman season in Knoxville as the third-string quarterback behind Joey Aguilar and Jake Merklinger. The former four-star prospect only got in a handful of reps during the season, but garnered much of the spotlight in the offseason after Merklinger decided to enter the transfer portal.
Brandon, on the other hand, is the 11th highest-rated signee in Tennessee Football history, according to 247Sports. The five-star prospect was ranked as the No. 3 player in the 2026 recruiting class as he led his high school to back-to-back North Carolina state championship victories in 2024 and 2025. One common note from the media during their first impression of Brandon in the spring was his build and size.
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“It’s not as if Faizon came in unprepared,” Wallace said on The Buck Reising Show. “He had the playbook for essentially a year. And then he comes out and he looks bigger than a lot of people thought. I was talking to a former Tennessee quarterback about that he was like, ‘Oh, that’s a big boy. That doesn’t look like a freshman.'”
What Tennessee ends up doing with its quarterback position remains a mystery heading into the summer. Will Josh Heupel pick a quarterback at the beginning of the season and stick with him throughout the year? Is there a chance that both guys could play early in the season before one takes over? Does Staub have a legitimate chance?
What we do know, though, is that there’s no string of easy games to lead into the SEC slate. After starting things off at home against Furman, Tennessee will travel to the Peach State for a true road game against Georgia Tech.
“So I think to me, in a Tennessee standpoint, man, you don’t come out and lose that game at Bobby Dodd Stadium to open the season up against Georgia Tech,” Wallace said. “They have a nice home schedule, but a lot of it is going to rely on the quarterback position. And I think Josh Heupel is a good enough offensive mind that he could figure it out. He’s proven in the past. I mean, look what he did with Joey Aguilar last year. I mean, they had to go pro style, but you had a guy for five months on campus. So, I mean, there’s growth.”
As we sit in the time between spring camp and fall camp, it’s important to remember what Heupel said about the Vols’ competition moving forward.
“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,” Heupel said during the spring.
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