Joey Aguilar will be Tennessee football’s starting quarterback when they take the field against Syracuse in Saturday’s season opener at Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. But fifth-year head coach Josh Heupel has no intentions of naming the backup ahead of the opener.
Asked if he’s decided on Aguilar’s backup during his Monday press conference, Heupel deflected.
“You guys will find out on Saturday when the depth chart comes out,” Heupel said with a smirk.
In the past, Tennessee has released its official depth chart on Monday of game week. That depth chart is full of “ORs” and indecision but it is a decent marker of where things stand. That’s not the case this season with Tennessee delaying its depth chart release until just a few hours before kickoff on game day.
Heupel’s comments imply that there will be a definite backup quarterback on Saturday’s depth chart, but he could certainly go the other way and name co-backups.
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Jake Merklinger and George MacIntyre are the two quarterbacks battling for the backup job. While Merklinger was seen as Aguilar’s top competition, Tennessee never eliminated MacIntyre from the competition or whittled down his practice reps making it uncertain who the leader is to be the backup.
Merklinger worked with the first team much more than MacIntyre during portions of practice open to the media this fall camp which does make him the more logical backup. But MacIntyre continued to get better throughout camp and was accurate throwing the football during both open periods of practice and in the Vols’ first fall scrimmage.
Merklinger is a redshirt freshman who has a full year under his belt in Tennessee’s offense. He played very little as the Vols’ third string quarterback a season ago, completing six-of-nine passes for 48 yards. But the full year of experience is an advantage for Merklinger in the backup competition.
MacIntyre is a true freshman from the midstate. The 6-foot-5 signal caller was a four-star recruit and the No. 13 quarterback in the 2026 recruiting cycle according to the 247sports composite rankings. MacIntyre is clearly extremely talented but being a true freshman makes it a challenge for him to gain complete understanding of the offense and grab the backup spot.
