All eyes have been on spring practice and the quarterback battle at Tennessee. It looks like the Vols have narrowed the competition down to two players: redshirt freshman George McIntyre and five-star true freshman Faizon Brandon.
Is Tennessee’s secondary actually a strength this season? Josh Heupel thinks so
ESPN analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy had an interesting theory when it came to who has the lead in the Tennessee quarterback competition. On his show Always College Football, he said, "The rep order in practice is maybe telling us something, even if Heupel's not willing to." McElroy then said, "In the first practices, it was MacIntyre first, then Brandon second, and Staub third. So that's kind of significant."
ESPN College Football analyst Greg McElroy thinks that the order of reps in spring camp could be an early indication of who the #Vols next QB will be 🍊
— FOX Sports Knoxville (@FOXSportsKnox) April 2, 2026
"The rep order in practice is maybe telling us something, even if Heupel's not willing to," said McElroy on his “Always… pic.twitter.com/oSDsDYDjG2
Greg McElroy thinks George MacIntyre is in the lead
This is definitely an interesting take, and I get where McElroy is coming from. Playing devil’s advocate, though, McIntyre is the only one of the three quarterbacks with experience in Heupel’s offense, he knows the drills, he knows what’s expected, and that familiarity counts for something. On the other hand, I’m not disagreeing with McElroy, as I’ve said all spring that McIntyre likely has the early lead, but there’s still plenty of time left in this battle.
To go a step further, Tennessee also had its second spring scrimmage today, and Josh Heupel didn't give us any hint about who has the lead, but he did give us some insight into how the players performed. Heupel said:
“In general I’ve been really pleased with their decision-making, taking care of the football. There’s been a couple of things where they’ve maybe not seen it right, or as the play’s broken down and had to move, body in an awkward body position where they haven’t been as accurate or sound in the decision-making. Heupel aslo added, “Collectively as a group, they’ve been really good. There’s a couple of things that each of them got to continue to grow in, but that’s spring ball and through the course of summer and training camp, too.”
As expected, Heupel didn't give us any leads on whether one quarterback completely outplayed the other, but it's good to know he's seeing improvement. I like McElroy's theory, and he is probably on to something, but at the end of the day, Week One is about 20 weeks away. This battle will have many twists and turns until then. There’s plenty to look forward to, and it will be exciting to see how the competition unfolds during the spring game and afterward.