Why the Tennessee Vols are in a tough predicament with their 2025 recruiting class
The Tennessee Vols have quickly become a go-to destination for elite quarterbacks thanks to Josh Heupel and his offensive staff. Heupel and quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator Joey Halzle have become possibly the premier quarterback developers in college football (though I'm sure USC fans and Lincoln Riley will dispute that). The good news for Tennessee is that […]
The Tennessee Vols have quickly become a go-to destination for elite quarterbacks thanks to Josh Heupel and his offensive staff.
Heupel and quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator Joey Halzle have become possibly the premier quarterback developers in college football (though I'm sure USC fans and Lincoln Riley will dispute that).
The good news for Tennessee is that the Vols should have no issues luring elite quarterbacks to Rocky Top in the coming years. The bad news is that it means Heupel and his staff are going to have to make some really tough decisions on the recruiting trail.
Tennessee's top focus right now is its 2024 recruiting class. The Vols currently have the No. 10 recruiting class in the nation and they have several big fish they're still pursuing.
While the 2024 class is the focus right now, the Vols are also working hard on their 2025 recruiting class.
Tennessee will hope to land an elite quarterback in the 2025 class to (hopefully) take over for Nico Iamaleava at some point.
Five-star quarterback George MacIntyre, 6-foot-5/182 lbs, is one of the top players in the 2025 recruiting class (No. 2 quarterback and No. 13 overall player per 247Sports composite). And he's from Brentwood, TN, which makes him a player the Vols need to land. Tennessee has to make sure elite players stay in-state and MacIntyre certainly qualifies as elite.
Rivals.com national recruiting director Adam Gorney pointed out this week that Tennessee is going to be a "major contender" for MacIntyre. For now, it looks like he's shaping up to be the next high-profile recruiting target that Vols fans fall in love with.
There's just one problem.
Nico's little brother, Madden Iamaleava, is also a quarterback in the 2025 recruiting class. The younger Iamaleava, who said last fall that Tennessee has a "leg up" in his recruitment, is a four-star prospect who's rated as the No. 12 quarterback in the nation and the No. 225 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class.
Suffice it to say, MacIntyre is the better and safer recruiting target.
But Iamaleava is family (literally for Nico). And Tennessee has made "family" the cornerstone of its culture. So do the Vols go all-in on MacIntyre because he's an in-state player and the better option? Or do they pursue Nico's brother to fall in line with the family culture that's been created at UT?
I think the answer is obvious. It has to be MacIntyre. The family culture at Tennessee is very real. But it's not going to blur Heupel's vision when it comes to putting the best possible team on the field. MacIntyre has that higher ceiling and that's the type of quarterback that Tennessee should always be chasing. Unfortunately for Madden Iamaleava, he'll have to be the fallback option for the Vols. It would be a great story for both of the Iamaleava brothers to light it up in Knoxville, but it might not be what's best for the program.
It'll be interesting to see how Heupel handles Madden's recruitment while also coaching Nico. It could be a difficult balancing act for Heupel and his staff — especially since there's no guarantee that Tennessee will land MacIntyre.
Ultimately, this is a good problem for the Vols to have. It's better than the alternative — not being able to land elite quarterbacks. That's a place where Tennessee lived for far too many years. But fortunately for the Vols, it appears those days are long gone.
