Forty-eight hours prior to him announcing a college decision, Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy quarterback George MacIntyre – the No. 2 signal-caller in the Top247 2025 Player Rankings and No. 9 prospect overall – was back on the Tennessee campus on Saturday causing a bit of a stir in the Vols receivers room.
A source on campus tells 247Sports players on the team were telling the staff, “make sure you get that guy.”
On Monday they did.
There had certainly been no shortage of effort in that quest by head coach Josh Heupel and his staff. When it was time to declare where he’d be going to school (walking into the ceremony to Thunderstruck by AC/DC), the industry-generated 247Sports Composite five-star recruit announced in front of a packed gymnasium he’d be playing his college football in Knoxville, choosing Tennessee over Alabama and a slew of others. LSU, Michigan, Auburn and UCLA were some of the other programs the blue-chipper strongly considered.
In addition to the mega-talent, that magnetic presence MacIntyre has was felt by those already in the Vols locker room and should also pay dividends in attracting more talent to play in the Checkered Orange down the road.
This was a recruitment where a few different schools may have had momentum at various points, but there is no question the day the Vols became a major contender. It was less than two months after MacIntyre was offered, when he was inside Neyland Stadium for a program-defining win over Alabama, snapping a 15-game losing streak in the Third Saturday in October rivalry game.
“Craziest environment I’ve ever been in,” MacIntyre said at the time. Students tore down the goalposts and part of one of them made it outside the stadium all the way to the Tennessee River. “UT is back and as an in-state kid it’s easy to see.”
Now MacIntyre wants to help take it to another level.
In the postgame locker room among the hysteria MacIntyre rubbed elbows with everyone from a cigar-smoking Vols legend in Peyton Manning to quarterback Hendon Hooker to several staffers including Heupel, now offensive coordinator Joey Halzle, Phillip Fulmer and quarterbacks analyst Mitch Militello. MacIntyre was marked then to help Tennessee win games like this one in the future.
“I’ve been able to see the change in the momentum of the school since Coach Heupel has gotten there,” MacIntyre said. “I think Tennessee has one of the best fanbases in the country. Just the prospect of doing it in your home state I think they sold that really well.”
Home cooking was the biggest attraction of it all. MacIntyre’s family made sure he was able to see everything during his process, taking visits from coast to coast, and he saw some cool atmospheres particularly in Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge. But nothing gave him the same thrill as thinking about doing it for the home team.
“Just being an in-state kid I can definitely see the buzz at Tennessee,” MacIntyre said. “When they’re good their fanbase is crazy. And things are going. I think Coach Heupel has done a really good job since he got there. Growing up in Tennessee they’ve always been in a drought so it’s good to see him get them out of it.”
MacIntyre has talked to 247Sports about Heupel brining the “swagger” back to the program and now he gets to help the Vols remain nationally relevant for years to come.
The 6-foot-5 1/2, 182-pound MacIntyre is an elite talent, a strong-armed passer, an explosive fluid athlete that can extend plays, make defenders miss in and outside the pocket that can really drive the ball downfield.
Since arriving on campus in Jan. 2021, Heupel has created a standard of top offenses with dynamic players in this Tennessee quarterback room and MacIntyre certainly meets the grade. He along with Top247 2024 signee Jake Merklinger will push former five-star Nico Iamaleava over the next two seasons before one of them takes over the QB1 role.
Hard to bet against MacIntyre being that guy.
Commit No. 6 for the Vols in the 2025 cycle, MacIntyre has put together two strong seasons as the varsity starter at Brentwood Academy. As a sophomore he threw for 2,341 yards and 19 touchdowns, leading his team to the final four. He went for 3,229 yards and 28 scores this past fall as a junior.
MacIntyre is bring an edge along with those special athletic qualities.
“He’s extremely competitive,” Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy offensive coordinator Colby Cameron said. Cameron was a terrific signal-caller in his own day, where following his final season at Louisiana Tech in 2012 he was awarded the Sammy Baugh Trophy as the nation’s top passer. “It’s funny. For him, with anything you do he’s competitive with others. But he’s really competitive with himself. He wants to be a perfectionist. I’m like relax you’re fine. He wants to be good. Innately it’s in him, he’s not afraid, he won’t back down from competition. If it’s in a game obviously, but in practice it’s who he is.”
While MacIntyre possesses elite intangibles, you don’t have former Alabama coach Nick Saban, Brian Kelly and Heupel hovering without fantastic tangibles we’ve mentioned.
“I think when you’re looking at a quarterback, he can throw every ball,” Cameron said. “Some guys have rocket arms but can’t hit water out of a boat. Guys can’t fit a touch ball. For (George), he can throw every ball. That is going to make him. That’s what makes him likable. He can throw quick game really well. If he needs to drop a fade ball deep, he’s doing it with touch and accuracy. It’s not just a 50-50 ball. He can really guide it into windows. Thats what makes him special at the high school level, he can make these throws. He’ll make these exact same throws at the NFL level. He’s doing it as a 17-year old. It’s pretty impressive.
“I worked with Jared Goff when he was a freshman at Cal, tall, skinny kid really similar to George,” Cameron continued. “George what makes him so unique is he’s tall and gangly right now but he’s so athletic. You can watch him play basketball and that also adds to what people see in him. He can move which makes him special.”
MacIntyre comes from a football family. His father Matt MacIntyre played for Jack Harbaugh at Western Kentucky. His uncle Mike is the head coach at Florida International University, with previous stints as the head coach at Colorado and San Jose State among his many other stops. George’s grandfather, who he is named after, was the head coach at Vanderbilt where in 1982 he was the Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year. Getting so much exposure to the game created a ferocity in MacIntyre that has helped him cultivate his athletic gifts and he’s still nowhere close to his ceiling.
“Man I tell you what there’s not much to not like about him,” Thomas Morris from QB Country where MacIntyre trains stated. In addition to his football talents, MacIntyre is also a bonafide Division-I basketball recruit that has played on some terrific AAU teams including LeBron James’s squad based out of Akron.
“I love his competitive spirit,” Morris continued. “I love that he’s just one of these guys that’s just a perfectionist. He’s always trying to get better. He’s not satisfied. Some of these guys start getting these offers and lean off the work and think they made it. George is has such a pro-mindset. He’s been in it, football and ball his whole life. I love those things about him.
“I feel like he’s just scratching the surface. He was a basketball guy till freshman year of high school and started focusing on football. You could see how fast he picked it up. Every workout he did from seventh grade on he got better. He’s one of those guys that’s always been in the moment, always competing. That’s what coaches like about him. He’s always been the top dog, on the big team, always been in that big moment. Nothing is too big for him. That’s the stuff I really love about him.
“Obviously on the field the way he processes, he just sees the field and processes at a different rate than most of the quarterbacks I ever had,” Morris continued. “And then he’s got amazing touch. That’s one thing he had from the very beginning. Being a basketball player he always had beautiful touch. Knew how to drop it in the bucket. He’s made tremendous strides being able to generate power and torque in his frame. I think by the time he ends up being 210, 215 he’ll end up being a different dude. I’d say a little Trevor Lawrence-esque, maybe a tighter stroke, maybe not the raw power, but that type of competitor.”
There is so much physical potential to MacIntyre who right now is still getting up and down the court playing above the rim for Brentwood Academy. He’ll soon be filling out that frame inside the Vols football program and Heupel’s offense is tailor-made for him to light it up.
“I think definitely being in that explosive offense,” MacIntyre said. “I like the offense a lot. Even ran some of it at BA. He really gets his players to play hard for him.”
This was a thorough decision MacIntyre made and now he looks forward to being an ambassador for Tennessee. His parents helped through the process but in the end it was his decision.
“I told him football it’s hard,” Matt stated. “It’s not always fun. You got to go somewhere you like being with everybody. I played for Coach Jack Harbaugh, he was hard on us. We loved each other. You’d laugh at each other when you got ripped. It’s a hard sport. You have to love being with everybody. During the games you remember the guys you’re with more than anything. Go somewhere the culture is really strong. Not just winning but the culture is strong. I still talk to my buddies from college and we still talk about the funny stuff that happened. And then the last thing I told him is you’re the one that has to go do it. I used to quit during two-a-days every day and you get back up and go do it again. You have to be the one to go do it. Quarterback is so high-profile now. It’s a lot more than I ever imagined. That’s my advice to him. Coordinators in the SEC are not always going to be there. They get head jobs. You have to look at the head coach mainly.”
The head coach is able to tell his Vols receivers another talented signal-caller is on the way.
