Quote from Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza should help ease concerns about Tennessee QB George MacIntyre’s weight
The Tennessee Vols swiped the Indiana Hoosiers’ strength coach on Tuesday morning.
The Tennessee Vols pulled off a huge move on Tuesday morning by swiping strength coach Derek Owings from the Indiana Hoosiers.
Tennessee was in need of a strength coach after parting ways with Kurt Schmidt on New Year’s Day.
The move came just hours after Indiana beat the Miami Hurricanes in the College Football Playoff championship game.
Owings, who worked with Vols head coach Josh Heupel at UCF, spent the last six seasons working for Curt Cignetti (at James Madison and Indiana).
Quote from Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza about Vols’ new strength coach should help ease concerns about Tennessee QB George MacIntyre’s weight
One of Owings’ first tasks on Rocky Top will be to help Vols quarterback George MacIntyre bulk up.
MacIntyre, at least for now, is viewed as the favorite to be Tennessee’s starting quarterback in 2026.
The Vols’ coaching staff has a lot of belief in MacIntyre, but there are concerns about how his 6-foot-6/195 pound frame will hold up against a nine-game SEC schedule.
“George MacIntyre can functionally play the quarterback position with his arm and stuff at the weight he’s at now — no problem,” said VolQuest’s Austin Price last week on 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will. “But when you take hit after hit after hit, how does he survive?”
“George needs the extra weight to be able to handle that. And again, he can get there. He just has to really put it on over the next six months or so.”
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza made some comments earlier this month about Owings that should made Vols fans feel better about MacIntyre’s offseason mission to add some weight.
Mendoza appeared on The Pat McAfee Show in early January and credited Owings with helping him maintain the proper weight.
“Coach Owings and the strength staff here got me up from, I think, 205 or 210 to now a low of where I need to weigh in at weigh-ins every week at 225,” said Mendoza. “And with that, I’ve been able to put on good weight where I’m able to run, and I’m able to still be fluid in my movements. And whenever the team needs me to run, I can always run.”
MacIntyre is obviously a different body than Mendoza, so we’ll see what kind of weight the young Tennessee quarterback is able to put on this spring/summer.
But it’s certainly a good sign for the Vols that Owings has experience in helping a quarterback add weight (15 to 20 pounds in Mendoza’s case), because that will undoubtedly be one of the key objectives for MacIntyre and Tennessee’s new strength coach over the next few months.
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