Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel isn’t going to name a starting quarterback until August.

But thanks to some recent reports, we’re starting to get an idea of where the battle between redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and true freshman Faizon Brandon currently stands.

Outkick’s Trey Wallace dropped some intel last week that suggests Brandon has the lead going into fall camp.

“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.”

Vols insider Tony Basilio drops intel that doesn’t bode well for George MacIntyre

Longtime Vols insider Tony Basilio shared some intel on Friday that backs up Wallace’s report.

Basilio said on The Tony Basilio Show that his sources say MacIntyre looked “unplayable” near the end of spring practice.

“George MacIntyre, no offense to him, in that eight-week time period (before fall camp), he better greatly improve,” said Basilio. “Or they’re going to be forced to start a true freshman quarterback.

“I’m going to tell you right now: Faizon Brandon was much more playable in the spring than George MacIntyre was. I’m just going to put it in plain English. We’ve kind of hinted around at it here, but the reason you’re getting that talk from people, and that chatter and those predictions from people, is [because] George MacIntyre looked like an unplayable player in the spring. And I’m not ripping the guy. He comes from a great family, they’re good people. Not every situation is for everybody, not every system in the sport is for everybody. They were really surprised at how bad he was, and he kind of looked like an unplayable player in the spring, to the point where if they had a do-over, they would have gone and gotten a quarterback for this year.”

“MacIntyre, you know, it just wasn’t good in the spring,” continued Basilio. “I was told literally by the football people that I trust that he didn’t look playable at the end of the spring. He did not look like a playable player. That’s not good. That’s not a good thing to say. I mean, I don’t want to say that.”

Basilio went on to note that he’s not predicting that Brandon will start this fall because no one is certain how Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel currently feels about the quarterback situation. He also pointed out that it’s always possible that MacIntyre takes a big jump this summer. So again, no one is making a prediction on who is going to start. This is just what Basilio’s intel currently says about the quarterback battle.

One thing that I think is important to note is that everyone at Tennessee thought Joe Milton was the best 0ption to start for the Vols in 2021 because of the way he outplayed Hendon Hooker during fall camp.

“I’ve said that for years [that] Joe was a great practice player,” said former Vols offensive lineman Ollie Lane last year. “And that’s no knock on his game at all. But Joe was great in practice. Looked amazing in practice. Hendon was not the best practice player. That’s when he would sometimes make mistakes that were stupid mistakes in practice.

“That competition, it was a weird competition because Joe really did win that competition in practice — because he was the better quarterback in practice. But then when you get in those game situations, practice isn’t always like the game, and so Hendon was just a true gamer. He knew how to step up to that stage and get it done. And that’s not to say Joe didn’t, but Joe could obviously put that on better in practice. And so that made it seem like he was the easy option (to be named the starter).”

Hooker obviously proved to be the better option, even though the eye test said otherwise during fall camp. The best option in practice isn’t always the best option on game days.

It wouldn’t be wise to write off MacIntyre because of reports in May. But now that we have multiple reports saying the same thing, it’s impossible to ignore that Brandon seems to have the lead going into the summer months.