Josh Heupel is at high risk of repeating a QB mistake that Vols fans still haven't forgotten, but there's a very easy way to avoid it

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Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel is at high risk of making a quarterback mistake that he’s already made once on Rocky Top, but there’s a very simple way to avoid it.

We likely won’t find out for another three months who the Tennessee Vols’ starting quarterback will be in 2026.

Tennessee is currently in the midst of a quarterback competition between redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and true freshman Faizon Brandon.

A couple of reports this month have suggested that Brandon is leading the competition entering the summer months.

“What’s Tennessee doing with their quarterback position?” said Outkick’s Trey Wallace last week on 104.5 The Zone’s The Buck Reising Show. “Is this going to be the Faizon thing or is this going to be the MacIntyre thing? From what I keep hearing, it’s probably going to be the Faizon thing. The term ‘Hail Mary’ was thrown out to me the other day in regards to MacIntyre getting the job.”

Josh Heupel is at risk of making the same quarterback mistake he’s already made once at Tennessee

While there’s a lot of intel floating around that suggests Brandon is leading this competition, we don’t know if Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel feels the same way.

Heupel hasn’t revealed very much publicly about where the quarterback competition stands.

It’s possible that Heupel feels very differently about Brandon and MacIntyre than what’s been reported. But either way, it’s clear that the perception from folks around the program who have talked to various reporters behind closed doors is that Brandon has been the better quarterback so far.

But even if that is 100 percent the truth, it may not mean a thing right now.

After all, Joe Milton was the better quarterback during fall camp five years ago when he was battling Hendon Hooker for the starting job. Nearly everyone at Tennessee thought Milton deserved to be the starter entering the 2021 season.

“I’ve said that for years [that] Joe was a great practice player,” explained former Vols offensive lineman Ollie Lane last summer. “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).”

Those comments from Lane line up with what former Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh said about the Milton/Hooker competition a couple of years ago.

“I don’t know that you really know until you know,” said Golesh in 2023 while discussing identifying a starting quarterback. “I went through it at the previous place where I thought I knew and I was wrong, so I’m humble enough to admit that.”

Hooker, of course, proved to be the better option (by a wide margin, too).

The Brandon/MacIntyre battle is obviously its own story. Just because Milton was the best quarterback in camp but Hooker was the better quarterback in games doesn’t mean that Brandon is doomed or that MacIntyre will take over as the starter two games into the season. This battle will play out in its own unique way.

Heupel’s job is to figure out which quarterback is the clear best option as quickly as possible once the 2026 season gets underway. He can’t just assume that the quarterback who wins the job during fall camp is undoubtedly the best option.

Tennessee should start the season by playing two quarterbacks

The best way to figure out the “clear best option” would be to play both quarterbacks early in the season until one takes a stronghold on the job (UT opens the season against Furman before playing Georgia Tech on the road in Week 2).

“I remember two years ago, SMU was coming into the ACC, and they had two quarterbacks,” said ESPN’s Tom Luginbill Monday on WNML’s SportsTalk while discussing UT’s quarterback competition. “And those guys were playing early, and then one guy started to kind of emerge because of his athleticism.

“And I remember (SMU head coach) Rhett Lashlee saying at the time, ‘This guy gives us the opportunity for the defense to have to guard the entire field.’ And I think you’ve got to find that out, if you’re Tennessee, who that guy is for you. Some of that may come through practice and reps, but some of that you might need to see in a game, too.”

Heupel had said in the past that he’s not a big fan of playing two quarterbacks. But he may need to change that philosophy if he wants to guarantee that the same mistake the Vols made in 2021 isn’t made again in 2026.

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