Why the Tennessee Quarterback Competition Is the Best Thing for the Vols
It is going to be a fascinating six-month battle between two prized blue-chip recruits.
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There are many different ways to view Tennessee’s impending quarterback competition over the next six months. With Joey Aguilar seemingly out of the starting quarterback picture after his failed preliminary injunction bid last week in Knox County, the Vols are likely to turn to redshirt freshman George MacIntyre or true freshman Faizon Brandon as the Big Orange’s starting quarterback this fall.
On one hand, you certainly knew what you had in Aguilar, but on the other hand, with MacIntyre and Brandon, you have two complete unknowns. It’s important to remember that unknowns are not inherently negative, and this quarterback battle between two big-time former blue-chip recruits could certainly result in the Vols finally securing their first multi-year starter through the high school ranks under head football coach Josh Heupel.
One of the biggest reasons Tennessee fans have been so concerned about going with either MacIntyre or Brandon in 2026 rather than Aguilar is the daunting schedule, at least ostensibly, that lies ahead for the Vols. However, think of how quickly one team’s fortunes can change on a dime in this sport. It’s never been harder to project how most teams will replicate what they accomplished the previous season.
That game at Bobby Dodd Stadium might look scary early against Georgia Tech, but star quarterback Haynes King is gone, and head football coach Brent Key will be breaking in a new offensive coordinator on The Flats. The Yellow Jackets could be in for a mighty step-back in 2026. Vanderbilt, who embarrassed you at Neyland Stadium last fall, will, in all likelihood, be working through the ups and downs of playing their own true freshman quarterback in Jared Curtis. Texas has had an impressive offseason, sure, but this team also should have lost to Mississippi State and Kentucky last season. LSU was expected to be a CFP team in 2025. Instead, the wins never came, and Brian Kelly was fired. You get Alabama at home, who you haven’t lost to inside Neyland Stadium under Heupel.
In all, there are four first-year coaches at their new school on Tennessee’s schedule, all within the SEC. This 2026 schedule appears to be more daunting than the last two seasons, but once the season gets rolling, these sorts of things can change in a hurry.
The Vols also lost five games last year. They weren’t because of Aguilar, but the team made seismic changes this offseason to ensure the same result does not happen again.
So Tennessee hired defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and strength & conditioning coach Derek Owings. After losing the most games since his debut season in Knoxville in 2021, Heupel took two big-time swings that could and should pay major dividends around his new quarterback, whoever that ultimately turns out to be this fall.
In all five losses last season, the Vols’ defense gave up thirty or more points. They gave up 30-plus points in eight of their 10 games against P4 competition on the whole last season. In 2024, the year Tennessee made the CFP, with a redshirt freshman under center, the Vols gave up thirty-plus points twice and lost both games to Georgia and Ohio State. The Vols had a top-10 scoring offense for the first time since 2022, and they still lost five games. For the second time under Heupel, Tennessee was the only P4 team to finish in the top-10 in scoring offense and not win ten-plus games. The Vols were 91st in 2025 and 90th in 2021, the two seasons where the offense finished in the top-10 in FBS, and they did not win double-digit games. Quite simply, the effect that Knowles and Owings have on Tennessee over the next six months is a much bigger deal for the Vols’ 2026 outlook than who is under center.
The returning offensive production around either MacIntyre or Brandon also matters. While former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava did have the benefit of a star workhorse tailback in Dylan Sampson behind him to help him along as a redshirt freshman starter, he did not have the weapons at wideout and even tight end that either MacIntyre or Brandon will have at their disposal. With two returning, productive wideout starters in Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews, in addition to the return of Ethan Davis and Da’Saahn Brame at tight end, and incoming five-star freshman Tristan Keys, a Second-Team All-SEC tailback in DeSean Bishop, and as many as five returning starters across the offensive line, the offensive cupboard isn’t bare for either of the two talented freshman.
Timing is everything in life and in sports. The timing of hiring strength & conditioning coach Owings away from Indiana, who just won the national championship, in the same offseason that you have 31 incoming true freshmen and 21 incoming transfers, should matter a great deal. The other is a huge change in who is calling the defense for the Vols this fall. Had you thrown either MacIntyre or Brandon into the fray with a scoring defense in the 90s, that would have felt like a recipe for disaster. Instead, the duo will go into next season with an experienced and proven defensive play-caller who should raise the floor for what that unit can be in 2026. I don’t think it’s fair to expect 2024-levels of production, but even with Penn State’s 2025 implosion, which led to an in-season firing for James Franklin, the unit still finished in the top-30 and gave the Nittany Lions a huge opportunity to upset Indiana in Happy Valley at one point in the year. The previous two seasons in Columbus, Knowles’ scoring defenses finished No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. It would be a major surprise if Tennessee’s scoring defense does not improve to a large degree next season.
There is a precedent within this own conference of freshman and redshirt freshman quarterbacks thriving, too. DJ Lagway went 5-1 as a starter in 2024, his only blemish being a loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, a game where he left with the lead. Marcel Reed went 7-3 in the regular season as a redshirt freshman in 2024. LaNorris Sellers’ best season as a Gamecock came in 2024, as a redshirt freshman. You can look over at the Big Ten, where Michigan has found success sticking with their young, in-house blue-chippers in J.J. McCarthy and Bryce Underwood. Drew Allar went 10-3 as a starter his sophomore season at Penn State. Demond Williams Jr. went 9-4 as a sophomore and threw for over 3,000 yards at Washington.
Tennessee is not in uncharted waters here — even better, they have two blue-chip quarterbacks to compete for one spot. In 2021, Joe Milton beat out Hendon Hooker for the QB1 job to begin that season. Milton, of course, did not play well out of the gate and got hurt, which opened the door for Hooker to take the job and run with it. The same could happen between MacIntyre and Brandon, where whoever wins the job in fall camp doesn’t hold the job once the actual games start and the bullets start flying. That’s the beauty of recruiting well and stocking multiple extremely talented, high-upside guys like MacIntyre and Brandon. Their talent is obvious, and every Tennessee fan should feel good about Heupel and his offensive staff finding their long-term solution at quarterback this fall. It may not have worked that way with Iamaleava, but there is a great chance and a great opportunity for the Vols to check one of those final boxes in the Heupel era in Knoxville – develop an in-house, multi-year starter at quarterback with a high ceiling. The only thing better for Tennessee fans if either prospect flourishes this fall for the Big Orange is how much better everybody would then feel about 2027 and 2028.
I don’t know who will be QB1 after the dust settles in Knoxville this fall, but it’s a good bet that whoever it is will have not only earned it but also fought through a mighty tough schedule and is now better off for it in 2027 and beyond. There’s nothing more exciting as a football fan than finding your long-term answer at quarterback.
Not a thing.
With Aguilar out and either MacIntyre or Brandon in, Tennessee is in a fantastic spot to provide fans with that very feeling this fall.