Josh Heupel came away from Tennessee football’s first fall scrimmage with a clear message on the quarterback battle: there’s still plenty to sort out, but both Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre showed enough to keep the competition moving in the right direction.
Saturday’s work gave the Vols their first real in-camp look at the position under live conditions, and Heupel said the early part of the scrimmage brought some communication hiccups. That settled down as the session went on, and from there he saw both quarterbacks settle in and make plays.
“Today (there were) a couple communication (issues), just handling some things early in the scrimmage that I think we can improve on,” Heupel said. “I thought as the scrimmage went on, both played at a really high level.
Made some plays down the field. Worked through their progressions.
We worked four-minute (drill) today, some things we can learn in that. All in all, a positive day.
Both of those guys have had good training camps. In general, they’ve taken really good care of the football.
They’ve continued to grow and mastering what we’re doing and the control and command that you have to have at the quarterback position. But for both of them, just like our football team, there’s a lot of growth to be ready to go play Week 1.”
That growth piece is the part Heupel keeps circling back to. He wants the quarterback who wins the job to show that mistakes get cleaned up, not repeated. That standard matters everywhere, but especially at quarterback, where the same issue can stall drives and slow the offense down.
Even with Jim Knowles’ defense throwing multiple looks at the offense, Heupel said he likes what he’s seeing from both quarterbacks in terms of progression.
“I like the growth from both of those guys,” Heupel said. “They’ve had really positive days, positive plays.
They’ve all had one that they probably would do a little bit different. The fundamentals and technique continue to get better, understanding of what we’re doing.
Just want to see them continue to grow here over the next couple weeks.”
With another scrimmage still to come, the next round of tape study could carry even more weight. Tennessee will use what it learned Saturday, then see how Brandon and MacIntyre respond when they get their next chance to separate themselves.
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