Coach Josh Heupel sounds like every Tennessee football fan who wants to over-analyze the quarterback competition between George MacIntyre and Faizon Brandon.
“We analyze every throw, every practice, the read, the fundamental, the technique,” Heupel said on Aug. 5 after the first preseason practice. “You’re looking at every individual play (to see if) there are areas of growth. Guys that keep making the same mistake twice, a third time – that’s when you get concerned.”
Quarterback competitions are ripe for dissection and over-analysis. Each public comment by a coach or player is picked apart. Every video clip of a pass is assigned extra importance.
That process started as soon as the Vols kicked off preseason practice, one month before No. 18 Tennessee
plays Furman on Sept. 5 (3:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+/ESPN+).
How George MacIntyre, Faizon Brandon looked in first practice
There were trivial details in the first practice.
MacIntyre took the first reps in drills. Brandon followed him, and then Colorado transfer Ryan Staub and walk-on Mason Phillips. But MacIntyre and Brandon both tossed passes to starting wide receivers.
There was circumstantial evidence.
MacIntyre was slightly more accurate when passing to receivers with no defenders. He looked sharp, tossing one incompletion among more than a dozen passes during periods open to media.
Brandon zipped passes with ease over the middle but narrowly missed on at least three tosses. He was out front on a swing pass, too high on a dig route and mistimed another short pass.
And then there’s the eye test.
Both quarterbacks look the part of an SEC starter, although in different ways.
MacIntyre’s weight, only 208 pounds, has been a point of criticism within the fan base. But at practice, his 6-foot-6 frame and whipping arm motion paint a pretty picture of a passer.
Brandon has a thicker 6-4, 225-pound frame. His release is quicker, shorter and more compact. And he throws on the run with little effort.
"Faizon is phenomenal. He's gotten so big, so much faster. He moves like a train at that size. It's crazy," said five-star freshman TK Keys, the No. 1 wide receiver in the 2026 class.
"But the other day I caught balls (from Brandon) without gloves on in warm-ups, and you can hear the ball sizzling.”
This could put a Tennessee quarterback behind in competition
Heupel wants constant growth, so consecutive poor practices by MacIntyre or Brandon could derail their chances at winning the starting job. They are indeed under a microscope, and UT coaches aren’t apologizing for that pressure.
“It’s a player’s responsibility to learn it, earn it, take it and prove that he’s going to play at a championship level,” Heupel said. “To get to that point, you got to be able to progress from day to day, rep to rep.”
Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle agreed that every detail could impact the quarterback competition. But he warns against putting too much weight on a single aspect of the evaluation.
“It’s got to be holistic. It’s not just who has the highest completion percentage,” Halzle said. “As we look at these guys go through their day, as they go through practice, scrimmages, overall, who gives us the best chance to go win on a Saturday?
“We also know that there are guys that are better under the lights, and you try to put them in positions where it feels like game day.
That places importance on UT’s two instraquad scrimmages in preseason practice. The first is slated for Aug. 15, which will be closed to the public and media. Until then, coaches will continue critiquing every rep by MacIntyre and Brandon to get closer to naming a starter.
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Josh Heupel said every pass in practice matters in Tennessee QB competition
