Tennessee Vols rising redshirt freshman quarterback George MacIntyre will have an opportunity to win the starting job this offseason.

MacIntyre is viewed by many as the favorite to win Tennessee’s starting quarterback battle this offseason (unless Joey Aguilar wins his case for an additional season of eligibility).

The biggest concern when it comes to MacIntyre isn’t his ability to play quarterback in the SEC; it’s his ability to withstand the beating that comes with playing quarterback in the SEC.

MacIntyre, who is 6-6 and listed at 195 pounds on Tennessee’s website (though it’s possible, if not likely, that he weighs more). The Vols would feel better if he entered the 2026 season closer to 215ish pounds.

“I think George has to continue to really throw on the weight,” said VolQuest’s Austin Price earlier this month. “Throw on the carbs. Just eat, eat, eat. In talking to him a lot over the last few weeks, it’s not from a lack of effort. He tries to eat everything in sight, but he does have some dietary restrictions because of some allergies. And so that’s where things get a little more difficult. It’s not as simple as just eat, eat, eat.

“So he’s certainly working to do that. I think, in a perfect world, if he could get up to 210 or 215 pounds by the start of the season, that would be a big deal. And we’ll kind of see where things go from there. His ability to play quarterback doesn’t hinge on his weight. George can sit back there in a clean pocket and be just as good as anybody….You’re going to take some hits. And that’s the part that people are fearful of — can he take the beating [and] the pounding of playing in this league week after week after week?”

Tennessee made an offseason hire that will be a huge benefit to George MacIntyre

The Vols made a major offseason move last week by hiring Derek Owings as Tennessee’s new strength coach (Director of Football Sports Performance). Owings spent the last couple of seasons as Indiana’s strength coach.

Tennessee also hired Katie O’Connor away from Kansas to serve as the program’s Director of Nutrition.

Before working at Kansas, O’Connor served as the assistant football performance dietitian at LSU for two seasons (2022 and 2023).

When MacIntyre was a high school recruit, he visited LSU multiple times and met with O’Connor to go over nutrition plans. It was a plan that MacIntyre was “very comfortable with.”

“It’s very important for George,” said VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs Friday on 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will of O’Connor’s nutrition plan for MacIntyre. “He’s got to get bigger and stronger. And he knows that. The new nutritionist was at LSU and talked about the plan that they would have for him if he went to LSU. And he was obviously very comfortable with that plan, and very comfortable with her.

“But with Derek Owings, the new strength coach, he’s in charge of everything. His tentacles are on everything with this. And that’s been very evident from just a little over a week on the job. He and Miss O’Connor have had a lot of discussion about not just individual weight plans, but just overall nutrition with the team. Where do they think they need to be? How do they adjust what’s served in the cafeteria? How do they adjust other things that they do to aid in nutrition? Whether it’s education, whether it’s protein shakes and all the other stuff that you’re doing these days — the scientific part of it.”

MacIntyre has plenty of work to do this offseason to get his body ready for the 2026 season. The good news is that Tennessee now has a strength and nutrition staff in place to help him reach those goals more efficiently.

And that new strength staff has hit the ground running since arriving in Knoxville last week.

“Owings has also had, believe it or not, he’s had individual meetings with every player on the team already to kind of get to know them and to start building a relationship,” said Hubbs. “And to move forward with some individual dialogue about their individual personal growth as a student athlete.

“And he’s big on relationships, apparently, from what everybody says. He feels like if you have those relationships, then the accountability factor is different, and it’s a little easier to crawl up in somebody if you need to. Because they know what each other is going through, so he’s been very hands on to start here for Tennessee.”

Getting stronger and more physical is a key offseason objective not just for MacIntyre, but for the entire team.

But when it comes to MacIntyre specifically, it sounds like Tennessee has the absolute perfect plan in place for a player who could be QB1 for the Vols this fall.

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