The Tennessee Vols’ starting quarterback competition will be decided by the end of the weekend. 

Well, it should be at least. 

Josh Heupel will likely use Saturday’s second fall scrimmage as the final checkpoint in Tennessee’s QB battle between true freshman Faizon Brandon and redshirt freshman George MacIntyre. The quarterback battle, of course, has been the most closely watched storyline of fall camp.

Tennessee is in a better quarterback situation than most people realize.

I think MacIntyre is a really good player. And Heupel obviously felt the same when MacIntyre was in high school and made him a priority for a reason. He’s a talented quarterback who fits the Vols’ offense and Heupel believes he can be a starting SEC quarterback. I think Heupel went after Brandon for the same reason, and he knew it was going to come to this point eventually. He believed in both quarterbacks and wanted to put them on the field in this situation to battle it out. That became the vision once Nico Iamaleava left.

Most people feel like Brandon has more physical upside — and that’s not to diminish how good MacIntyre is. I think MacIntyre has real potential to play at a high level. But somebody has to win the job, and the outcome of this battle will say more about the player who won the job, not the player who didn’t. 

If Brandon can consistently execute with wide receivers Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley, and if he has enough chemistry with those guys to where that group is consistently making plays, that’s who Tennessee has to go with.

“In talking to everybody at the scrimmage, and there were lots of people in there from different facets, they all were just glowing about Faizon and what he got done on Saturday,” said VolQuest’s Austin Price on 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will on Tuesday. “So I think you have to have a similar type of performance this Saturday from George. Ultimately, George I don’t think can just be good. I think he’s got to be great on Saturday in the second scrimmage if he’s wanting to give them pause on making the decision.”

All Brandon has to do in this final fall scrimmage is play his game, play free, and play loose. MacIntyre can do the same, and both can play at a high level. But if they’re both making plays, I think it has to be Brandon because he has a little more elite physical ability on the field.

This is obviously a good problem to have for Heupel and the Vols. MacIntyre has a lot of football ahead of him and is still going to be a good player in the SEC or the Big Ten in some form or fashion. And who knows, maybe he makes the plays more consistently than Brandon in the second fall scrimmage and wins the job. Brandon has to go earn it on Saturday and show he can do it, and if he doesn’t, MacIntyre will be the guy.

That’s the way it appears this quarterback battle is going to play out to end fall camp. Then we’ll see what happens when the games get started and who actually shows up.

But either way, I think Tennessee has two quarterback options who have the talent to play this game at the highest level. It’s a situation where one of these players is going to be playing too well to keep off the field. And that’s the best type of quarterback situation to have.