Prominent national college football analyst sends a warning to the Vols, but it’s too late for Tennessee to do anything about it
The Tennessee Vols are looking to rebound from a tough 2025 season that saw the program finish with an 8-5 record.
Spring practice is set to begin for the Tennessee Vols on March 16.
There are plenty of new faces on Rocky Top this spring — including a new strength coach in Derek Owings and new defensive coordinator in Jim Knowles — but most of the focus in Knoxville over the next few weeks will be on Tennessee’s starting quarterback battle.
After learning that last season’s starting quarterback Joey Aguilar’s injunction for another season of eligibility was denied, the Volunteers will turn to either redshirt freshman George MacIntyre, true freshman Faizon Brandon, or Colorado Buffaloes transfer Ryan Staub in 2026.
Staub has the most experience (12 games with two starts) of the three quarterbacks, but MacIntyre and Brandon are considered the favorites to win the job.
MacIntyre and Brandon are both elite talents, but they have very little experience between them (Brandon should still be in high school right now and MacIntyre attempted just nine passes last season).
The inexperience in Tennessee’s quarterback room led to Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt delivering a warning this week.
Joel Klatt doesn’t think Tennessee will “overachieve” in 2026 due to youth at the quarterback position
Klatt suggested this week that Tennessee and Alabama (the Crimson Tide are also going with youth/inexperience at the quarterback position) are going to underachieve this fall because of a lack of experience at quarterback.
“You don’t have a lot of experience across the board at Tennessee and Alabama…Now, why is that such a big deal?” said Klatt. “And why is that a storyline that we have to keep our eyes on? Well, because everybody that went with inexperienced quarterbacks, for the most part, underachieved last year.
“This sport has drastically changed, and we all know it. I’ve talked about it for a long time here about the importance and value of experience, and I think that that value — you can’t overstate it at the quarterback position. That’s where we see the good teams, the quality teams, they’ve got experience at the most important position on the field — the quarterback.”
“We saw it last year,” continued Klatt. “The last four teams in the national semi-finals all had quarterbacks that were at their second school. They played a lot of football. They were experienced players. Dante Moore, second school. Trinidad Chambliss, second school. Carson Beck, obviously, second school. Fernando Mendoza, second school…..We’re seeing it with JJ McCarthy three years ago at Michigan, with Will Howard at Ohio State (in 2024), and Fernando Mendoza at Indiana (last season). If you don’t have experience, you will underachieve. It’s not just that the teams that are achieving at a high level have experience. It’s, again, like I keep saying, you will underachieve with inexperience.”
“As good as Julian Sayin was at Ohio State, and he was brilliant for a lot of the year, and went to New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist,” added Klatt. “This guy had a great year. And yet, at the end, what ends up happening? He was, I hate to say it, a bit overwhelmed in losses to Indiana and Miami. Both of those teams had experienced guys, and they end up winning in the end. We saw it with Arch Manning. Arch wasn’t all that experienced. He got a couple of starts the previous year. And I know people always say, ‘Joel, stop saying that — he’d been in college for a long time. He had sat behind Quinn Ewers for a number of years.’ I understand. But he wasn’t experienced on the field as a starter. That is a different deal. It doesn’t matter where you start — it’s better to have started. And now these teams, Alabama and Tennessee, are not going to have that.
“It’s so strange to see these giant brands who want to play at that level, Alabama and Tennessee, going with inexperience. I don’t know if there is any way that those two teams, those two programs, are not underachieving next fall, just simply based on that. So we’ll see how that goes.”
Klatt certainly isn’t wrong. The results the last couple of years indicate that a team is much more likely to have postseason success if they have a starting quarterback with significant experience.
But it’s still possible to get to the College Football Playoff with an inexperienced quarterback (Tennessee did it in 2024 with a first-year starter in redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava).
Tennessee, by the way, isn’t going with inexperience necessarily by choice. The Vols hoped that Aguilar would be allowed to return in 2026. And even before learning Aguilar’s fate, Tennessee pursued Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt (who went to LSU after getting stalked by Lane Kiffin).
There is no spring transfer window anymore, so Tennessee’s quarterback room is set.
We’ll see how the 2026 season goes for the Vols — I’m not going to put a ceiling on what they can accomplish. But whatever happens, they’ll be going into the 2027 season with experience at the quarterback position because of going with youth in 2026. It’s an old school approach, but it’s still the best approach when it comes to development. And it’s clearly an approach that Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel believes in.
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