Josh Heupel’s Tennessee is one of many schools having a tight quarterback competition for the 2026 season. Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre are seen as the main competitors for the Vols’ QB1 role.
What to Expect from Tennessee’s 2026 Quarterback Battle Between Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre
In this week’s episode of the “College Football Insiders” podcast, Brandon Marcello said that he had heard MacIntyre struggled at times this spring with taking too many sacks and holding on to the ball too long. He also said that Brandon has developed more quickly than expected.
Marcello then asked co-host Chris Hummer for his take on Tennessee’s quarterback battle.
“It’s a quarterback room with a lot of questions,” Hummer said. “I think what you said about MacIntyre and Faizon is pretty accurate, at least from what I’ve heard from the spring. I still would give the slight edge to MacIntyre at this moment. I think experience in the system matters.”
MacIntyre served as the primary backup in 2025 behind Joey Aguilar, who finished last season with an 85.0 score in the PFSN College Football QB Impact Metric. MacIntyre is entering his second year in Knoxville and is considered the front-runner due to his year of experience in the system. He appeared in two games last season and completed 7 of 9 passes for 69 yards.
Meanwhile, Brandon was Tennessee’s first commit in the 2026 class and wasn’t widely expected to contend heading into spring. That perception has shifted significantly, but Hummer still views him more as a long-term option than an immediate starter.
“Faizon was hurt for a pretty significant amount of his senior year, and hasn’t played a ton of football,” Hummer said. “The ceiling is obviously much higher than anybody on the roster, and he’s the long-term starter there. And in a lot of ways, Tennessee’s system is plug-and-play. Like, there’s just not a lot in terms of reads asked of quarterbacks in that system, and you could get by with somebody young in their career.
“But I think for Faizon, if he’s going to close the gap in this race, which I think is entirely possible, like I really do feel like this one’s completely up in the air heading into fall camp, he has to get more consistent heading into the fall. And if he can do that, I expect him to play. I expect him to play at some point this year. For me, it’s whether it’s going to be week one or like week five or six.”
Heupel also said last month that he is certainly “pleased with” what Brandon has done up until this point. However, Heupel said there is still considerable development needed across the quarterback room to meet Tennessee’s standards.
