Tennessee football fans could be witnessing history this week, as Josh Heupel may be on the verge of making his first performance-based quarterback switch of his six seasons with the Volunteers.
Five-star freshman Faizon Brandon made his fifth start Saturday against Auburn but struggled significantly, throwing his first interception of the season and bolting the pocket early as if he was still terrified of Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons and his urination antics. Sophomore George MacIntyre entered the game and inherited a 7-3 deficit with 3:42 left before halftime and would complement the rushing success of DeSean Bishop the rest of the way in Tennessee’s 24-14 victory.
With MacIntyre at the controls, the Vols amassed 273 of their 323 total yards against the Tigers, or a whopping 84.5%. He threw a 13-yard pass to Mike Matthews and a 12-yard pass to Braylon Staley on his first drive of the afternoon, and his 42-yard pass to Matthews early in the third quarter set up Bishop’s 25-yard touchdown run that put the Vols ahead to stay at 10-7.
“He was as efficient as you can imagine,” Auburn first-year coach Alex Golesh said of the former four-star prospect out of Brentwood Academy. “I think at one point he was 6-for-6, and I thought he operated well. We forced a ton of pressure in the first half, and when they went big in the second half, they started running it, even on passing situations.
“He took a couple of shots down the field, and we didn’t get any pressure. They max-protected him, and we certainly didn’t affect him in any way. That was a big piece of him being efficient.”