In a perfect world, a clear starter will emerge from the Tennessee Vols’ quarterback competition and be the guy for the entire 2026 season.

That’s what Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel would love to see happen.

But both of the Vols’ starting quarterback options — redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and true freshman Faizon Brandon — are young and inexperienced. Both players are likely going to have some tough moments as they adjust to life in the SEC (it’s part of the development process for every young player, no matter how talented they are).

As a result, it’s feeling increasingly likely that Tennessee’s quarterback battle won’t truly be decided until the season is well underway. We learned in 2021 with Joe Milton and Hendon Hooker that the best quarterback in fall camp isn’t always the best option on Saturdays.

Heupel will have a good feel for who he thinks the starter should be by the end of fall camp, but that feeling could change once MacIntyre and Brandon play in real games.

“I still think this probably plays out some in the season,” said the Knoxville News Sentinel‘s Adam Sparks this week on The Tony Basilio Show. “Josh Heupel doesn’t want it to be that way.”

The big reason it’s likely that the competition will play out into the season — in some form or fashion — is that whoever doesn’t win the job could enter the transfer portal after the season.

“I think the fear is that if George is the starter, then you could lose Faizon,” said Sparks. “I think that’s really the fear. I don’t think anybody is against George. But we’re in the portal age, so it’s not like if George starts, then Faizon’s going to hang around for a year or two and develop, and then he’ll be the starter. That’s not what we’re in now — every offseason there is free agency.

“The assumption is that Faizon has the higher ceiling [and that] long-term, he’s the better quarterback. And so you don’t want to sacrifice, let’s say three seasons of [Faizon] because George ends up being a nose ahead of him for the early part of the season. I think that’s more of the fear.”

If that’s the situation — and Heupel has said he’s aware that he could lose whichever quarterback doesn’t win the job — then Tennessee has to make absolutely sure they settle on the right guy. And the only way to know that for sure is by seeing both guys play against quality competition.

Again, I don’t know how Heupel will approach giving both quarterbacks a chance — he is not a fan of a two-quarterback system, so I wouldn’t expect that — but he’s going to have to find a way to see what both of these quarterbacks can do in tough SEC games to truly know which player is the best option for Tennessee for the next couple of seasons.