After a 10-win season in 2024, Josh Heupel’s Tennessee slipped to an 8-5 finish in 2025. The 2026 season seems even tougher, with the Vols still lacking a clear quarterback leader.
Tennessee’s QB Issues Raise Alarms for Josh Heupel’s 2026 Season
SEC analyst Paul Finebaum provided his outlook for several college football programs, including Tennessee, on Monday’s episode of the “McElroy and Cubelic in The Morning” podcast.
“Tennessee might be the most worried fan base in the SEC because it is just hard to see a path where they get significantly better,” Finebaum said (13:40). “I thought they were pretty bad at the end of last season, and with a quarterback unknown, I don’t know how they get a lot better.”
Big programs like Texas, Alabama, and LSU all have to play in Knoxville in the 2026 season. So Tennessee is still seen as a potential contender for the expanded College Football Playoff. However, as Finebaum said, the key issue remains how quickly the team’s next starting quarterback can adjust to the pace and intensity of SEC competition.
George MacIntyre entered spring as the likely frontrunner in the QB race after spending a year in Heupel’s system. He previously backed up Joey Aguilar, who had an 85.0 rating in the PFSN College Football QB Impact Metric last season. MacIntyre saw limited action in 2025, completing 7 of 9 passes across two appearances. However, spring reports witnessed his issues with holding the ball too long and taking avoidable sacks.
Meanwhile, freshman Faizon Brandon has also been pushing for the starting job, as he challenged MacIntyre throughout the spring with his elite talent. He was a five-star recruit in the 2026 class and was ranked as the No. 1 quarterback in the cycle, according to 247Sports Composite Rankings.
Brandon showed elite ability but also experienced expected freshman inconsistencies while learning the offense in the spring. With all these in discussions, football insiders like Chris Hummer gave MacIntyre an edge in the QB battle.
“I still would give the slight edge to MacIntyre at this moment,” Hummer said in this week’s episode of the “College Football Insiders” podcast. “I think experience in the system matters… 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 still has time to settle the quarterback situation, with Tennessee’s 2026 opener set for Sept 5 against Furman.
