With Joey Aguilar’s court ruling now in the rear-view mirror as of last Friday, we now know that Josh Heupel and his offensive staff will be hosting another quarterback battle this offseason as Tennessee prepares for the 2026 football season. The Vols will be looking for their fifth starting quarterback in the last five seasons and their second straight true quarterback battle this fall.
Aguilar’s court ruling that upholds his eligibility expiration means that Tennessee will find its quarterback amongst the trio of redshirt freshman George MacIntyre, highly-touted true freshman Faizon Brandon, and Colorado transfer Ryan Staub. MacIntyre only threw nine passes as the third-string quarterback in 2025, Brandon is a true freshman who has never seen college-level competition, and Staub played in a limited role for Deion Sanders’ squad last year. But while there’s certainly inexperience in the Vols’ room, MacIntyre and Brandon are believed to have a lot of talent. Both are highly-rated prospects and two players that Tennessee badly wanted during their respective recruiting cycles.
While breaking things down on Sunday night’s episode of The RTI Low-Down, On3’s Chris Low shared his thoughts on Tennessee’s next step in the wake of the Aguilar ruling.
“MacIntyre and Brandon both were guys right at the top of Tennessee’s list,” Low said. “If you went back and looked at their recruiting board in both those cycles, both of those kids, right at the very top. These aren’t kids they settled for. These are the quarterbacks they wanted. Paid a lot of money to get them. Both these kids are making well over a million dollars. Let’s see. Let’s go. Let’s see what you got. Let’s see who wins it.”
More From RTI: Way-Too-Early Predictions for Tennessee Football’s 2026 Quarterback Battle
As we saw last year, there are a lot of elements that go into winning a high-profile quarterback battle at Tennessee. You’ve got to have the right tools and make-up for Josh Heupel’s system, but you also have to win over your teammates and the locker room. It was quickly evident that Aguilar was a gritty leader for the players around him last season, which helped him win the starting nod.
“You’ve got to win the locker room, you’ve got to win your teammates,” Low said. “You can’t fool the players – they’re going to know through spring practice, through summer workouts, on into preseason camp, who’s the best guy. Who gives them the best chance to win? There is no more, sort of, everyone’s sort of stuck in purgatory. Is Joey going to win his hearing? Is he not going to win his hearing? Is he going to be back? Well, he’s not going to be back. And I think that’s the way you’ve got to proceed now. You move forward, and you find out, hey, were our evals right? Are these kids as good as we think they are? How will they handle competition? How will they rally the guys around them? How much will the guys buy into what they do? Their strengths, all the things you’ve got to do as a quarterback. And we’re about to start to find that out. Spring practice starts next month.”
With the Aguilar saga seemingly now at a full stop, Tennessee can turn its attention to the upcoming battle at hand. Picking between two freshmen and a limited transfer is a bit of a unique situation in the new-look college football landscape, but Tennessee will be tasked with making the most of what they have for now and the future. We’ll get our first look at the upcoming battle when Tennessee begins spring training camp on March 16.
Check out Chris Low and Bob Baskerville’s full thoughts on the Joey Aguilar ruling and Tennessee’s upcoming quarterback battle below:
