Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel has been adamant this spring that he’s not going to name a starting quarterback until fall camp.

Redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and true freshman Faizon Brandon, a former five-star recruit, are battling for the starting job.

MacIntyre entered the spring with a “lead” due to his one season of experience in Heupel’s system (MacIntyre attempted just nine passes as a true freshman last season). But that lead is gone after spring practice.

“I thought George had a slight lead going into the spring, just because he’s been in the system for a year,” said VolQuest’s Austin Price in April on 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will. “I think that lead is gone. I think it’s pretty even here as we exit spring, and it’ll be a highly contested battle going into fall camp.”

Not only is MacIntyre’s lead gone, but one college football insider is hearing that it could be Brandon’s job to lose this fall.

Outkick’s Trey Wallace shares the latest on Tennessee’s quarterback battle

Outkick’s Trey Wallace, one of the top insiders in college football, joined 104.5 The Zone’s The Buck Reising Show on Wednesday and dropped some interesting nuggets about the Vols’ quarterback competition.

“What’s Tennessee doing with their quarterback position?” said Wallace. “Is this going to be the Faizon thing or is this going to be the MacIntyre thing? From what I keep hearing, it’s probably going to be the Faizon thing. The term ‘Hail Mary’ was thrown out to me the other day in regards to MacIntyre getting the job. He had a year and a half head start on the freshman to get in and win over the locker room, and learn the playbook.”

“My biggest thing for [MacIntyre] is knowing the offense. And you know, it’s not as if Faizon came in unprepared. He had the playbook for essentially a year, and then he comes out, and he looks bigger than a lot of people thought. I was talking to a former Tennessee quarterback about that, and he was like, ‘Oh, that’s a big boy. That doesn’t look like a freshman.’”

Based on Wallace’s intel, it sounds like Brandon is trending to win this quarterback comeptition.

But even if that’s the case, Heupel is going to let this battle to play out to make sure he and his staff make the best decision possible. After all, a lot can change in three or four months.

One interesting thing to note — and this isn’t a slight toward MacIntyre because every high school situation is different — is that Brandon went 35-1 in high school with back to back state championships. That experience in high-level competitive high school games could be an under-the-radar advantage for Brandon in this battle.