There’s one big thing that everyone needs to understand about Tennessee QB George MacIntyre and the fourth down play against South Carolina
A failed fourth down conversion prevented the Tennessee Volunteers from beating the South Carolina Gamecocks this past weekend in Williams-Brice Stadium.
One of the biggest discussions from Tennessee’s heartbreaking 27-24 loss to South Carolina is the Vols’ failed fourth down conversion that gave the Gamecocks the ball back with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter.
No one from Tennessee has straight up explained what happened on the play, but based on the postgame comments and a play that Tennessee ran earlier in the game from the same formation, it seems fair to assume that quarterback George MacIntyre simply didn’t hand the ball off to tight end DaSaahn Brame.
I’ve seen some fans who are down on MacIntyre because of that play. Some have questioned why he didn’t take more responsibility in the postgame press conference, while others have chosen to ignore the great game he played up until that point.
Some have even said that Tennessee should start true freshman Faizon Brandon against Kentucky because of that play.
I don’t understand any of it.
MacIntyre played extremely well against South Carolina. He made several big plays that were wiped off the board because of penalties that didn’t impact the play and that were out of his control.
Yes, it seems he missed the handoff to Brame that likely would’ve sealed the game. That is something he has to address and be better at moving forward.
But don’t you think that’s what he’s going to do?
Unless something crazy happens, MacIntyre is going to get another opportunity against Kentucky. And if Tennessee is going to win that game, they need MacIntyre to play well.
So why harp on the busted play against South Carolina?
We all understand what happened. The play didn’t get made. MacIntyre just had a brief moment of doubt in what he was supposed to do. It’s a play he’s made during games and in practice plenty of times. But he had a human moment and the play didn’t go his way.
After the game, I think MacIntyre was still in competition mode and didn’t go into great detail about the play because he’s probably not sure what all he’s supposed to publicly say about the play and the formation.
Vols head coach Josh Heupel, meanwhile, just said it was “missteps” by MacIntyre. There was no need to say much more than that. Heupel understands that young quarterbacks make mistakes. Every quarterback in history has made mistakes and had moments of doubt. It looks different for every player, but it’s almost certainly going to happen to every quarterback at some point in their career (probably multiple times).
The only thing MacIntyre can do moving forward is put the play out of his mind and go play with confidence and execute better in that situation the next time it comes up.
And if you’re a Vols fan who wants to see the team win games, then the only thing you can do is provide positive support for MacIntyre, which should give him confidence. Trust me, all the negative noise isn’t going to help his confidence. It’s not going to help any player’s confidence.
Think about it like this: If you’re a parent and your child had a bad play in a game, what would you do? You’d help him or her understand what went wrong, get better at it, and then forget about the bad play and root for them to make the play the next time they get the opportunity. You wouldn’t constantly remind him or her that they messed up the play.
I mean, it happened. There’s no changing it. You learn from it and move on to the next game. Moving past it is the only way MacIntyre is going to take the next step as a player.
It feels like there’s a section of college football fans — and this applies to all fan bases — who live in a world of negativity. It’s like they can’t wait for something bad to happen so they can demand that someone is fired or benched. I don’t get it.
There will be time for evaluation after the season. But for now, the Vols have all of their goals in front of them. The only way they will reach those goals is if they play free and with confidence in November. And that’s a hell of a lot easier to do with support from fans who care about the players who are actually out there trying to win games for the program the fans love (and those players aren’t perfect — they’re going to make mistakes…even the future Hall of Famers).
