Despite not winning the job during fall camp, sophomore George MacIntyre has emerged as the Tennessee Vols’ starting quarterback this fall.

MacIntyre took over from true freshman Faizon Brandon in the Vols’ win against Auburn in early October and he hasn’t looked back.

Tennessee is 3-1 with a win over Alabama in MacIntyre’s four starts.

Some fans and analysts have questioned why MacIntyre wasn’t the starter at the beginning of the season, but I’m not sure that’s fair. Every report and piece of intel that came out of fall camp pointed to Brandon as the clear winner of the competition.

Games, however, are different than practices/scrimmages. And MacIntyre, according to Voice of the Vols Mike Keith, is a “gamer” who shows up under the bright lights (which isn’t something anyone can know until a player actually plays under the bright lights).

“George MacIntyre has been outstanding,” said Keith this week on 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will. “And the thing that your listeners understand probably better than most is George MacIntyre is not only a prepared player — he was in the complex working last night when I left. He’s doing something all the time. George MacIntyre is the prep guy. He’s the work guy. He’s the practice guy. But George MacIntyre is also a gamer. He’s better on Saturday than he is during the week. He’s a competitor. … George MacIntyre has done a wonderful job for Tennessee. And I can’t say I’m terribly surprised. I’m a fan of GMac. I always was.”

You never know who is a gamer in the SEC until you see them in action on Saturdays. (And none of this is to say Faizon Brandon isn’t — that wouldn’t be fair at all. We can’t fully judge Brandon yet based on six quarters of SEC action…more than half of which he played while injured).

Tennessee fans saw this same thing with Hendon Hooker in 2021 and 2022. Hooker didn’t win the job over Joe Milton because he didn’t practice as well as Milton.

“I’ve said that for years [that] Joe was a great practice player,” said former Vols offensive lineman Ollie Lane in 2025 during an appearance on The Sports Source. “And that’s no knock on his game at all. But Joe was great in practice. Looked amazing in practice. Hendon was not the best practice player. That’s when he would sometimes make mistakes that were stupid mistakes in practice.

“That competition, it was a weird competition because Joe really did win that competition in practice — because he was the better quarterback in practice. But then when you get in those game situations, practice isn’t always like the game, and so Hendon was just a true gamer. He knew how to step up to that stage and get it done. And that’s not to say Joe didn’t, but Joe could obviously put that on better in practice. And so that made it seem like he was the easy option (to be named the starter).”

The same thing was true of Josh Dobbs during his early seasons at Tennessee. He usually wasn’t the best quarterback during practice, but he was the best quarterback for the Vols on Saturdays.

Again, you just never know how a player is going to perform on Saturdays until they’re in that situation. It’s a different level of pressure than what players see in practice, and not everyone handles it well. MacIntyre, though, is handling it very well right now.