{"id":823853,"date":"2026-08-24T04:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823853\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T04:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:36:19","slug":"college-football-insider-offers-unfiltered-thoughts-on-who-is-leading-tennessees-quarterback-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823853\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Insider Offers Unfiltered Thoughts on Who is Leading Tennessee’s Quarterback Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"tennessee<\/a>Photo via Ryan Sylvia | RTI<\/p>\n

As Sunday draws on, Tennessee football is yet to name a starting quarterback. The Vols are going to embark on a mock game week beginning Monday, before the actual first game week of the season gets underway. Still, Josh Heupel has kept things close to his chest.<\/p>\n

However, plenty of buzz has followed a specific quarterback following the second scrimmage of the fall camp, with five-star freshman Faizon Brandon seemingly emerging as the leader over sophomore George MacIntyre. College football insider Chris Low, the co-host of the RTI Low-Down<\/a>, backed up these claims on the most recent episode of the podcast.<\/p>\n

Low said he \u2018100%\u2019 expects Brandon to be named the starter, he just isn\u2019t sure when. He also offered that it wasn\u2019t because MacIntyre played poorly, but that Brandon did enough to cement himself as the leader.<\/p>\n

While it would be uncharted territory for Heupel to start a true freshman in the first game of the season and the first time UT would do so since 2004, rave reviews continue to roll in for Brandon. Low even noted that another SEC coach told him he thought Brandon was the best quarterback in the 2026 class, despite being ranked No. 3 by 247.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0Predicting Tennessee Football\u2019s Three-Deep Depth Chart After Second Fall Scrimmage<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what Low had to say on the latest episode of the RTI Low-Down<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since the spring ended, I think most people felt like, having talked to people around the program, that Faizon Brandon had really positioned himself well to be the starter. He\u2019s only solidified that this preseason. I do 100% expect him to be the starter. I don\u2019t know if Josh Heupel\u2019s timeline, though, in announcing that will fall in line with ours or anybody else\u2019s. I think he\u2019ll announce it when he\u2019s ready to announce it, how he wants to announce it, knowing Josh like I do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you\u2019re having quarterback competitions, Bob, a lot of time when one kid wins it, and again, I think Brandon has done enough to do that, the narrative or sometimes the notion is, well, the other kid played poorly. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case at all with George MacIntyre. I think, in fact, he\u2019s played some of his better football this preseason and has made it a race. But, I don\u2019t think, again, the people I trust, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s been much of a question at this point that Brandon gives them the best chance at this point with his playmaking ability, he\u2019s more creative, he\u2019s more explosive, just a guy that when things break down and he has to go off script, he\u2019s the better option there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not to say that at some point that George MacIntyre might not be able to help them. You rarely get through a season with just one quarterback. It might be a quarter, Bob, it might be two series if the quarterback gets banged up, it might be a half, it might be two games, but you better have two. I think when we hear from Josh officially, that\u2019s pretty much what he\u2019s going to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m looking forward to seeing what a kid as talented as Brandon can do in a real game. I talked to another coach at another SEC school this year. He told me he thought Brandon was the best quarterback in this class, the 2026 class, that they\u2019ve seen. Probably the most complete package the way he throws the football, the way he\u2019s able to move around and make plays, but boy, that\u2019s a tough assignment for a freshman in any league, especially the SEC, to start from the get-go.<\/p>\n

\u201cHasn\u2019t happened for Tennessee since Brent Schaeffer in 2004, so more than 20 years ago, when he and Erik Ainge shared snaps that season that a true freshman right out of high school had started the first game for Tennessee.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo via Ryan Sylvia | RTI As Sunday draws on, Tennessee football is yet to name a starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[241853,399,241854,398,396,397,99,5771,17963],"class_list":["post-823853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-faizon-brandon","tag-football","tag-george-macintyre","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports","tag-tennessee-football","tag-tennessee-vols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}