In-State QBs Define Tennessee's Early 2025 Efforts

The contact period opened on August 1, 2023, and the Tennessee Volunteers continue recruiting the class of 2025, which is headlined by two talented quarterbacks.

The contact period opened for 2025 recruits on August 1, 2023. What does that mean? Well, as of Monday, college coaches are free to initiate contact with rising high school juniors, which adds another wrinkle to these early processes. Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel has built a reputation for working ahead and focusing on future classes, paced by his work in the 2025 cycle.

There's one Tennessee storyline that hands above all in that class - will the Vols end up with five-star quarterback George MacIntyre (Nashville, Tenn.), or will they land four-star quarterback Deuce Knight (Lucedale, Miss.)? That conversation got even hotter this past week as Knight announced that he would transfer from George County High School in Mississippi to Lipscomb Academy, a Nashville powerhouse defending two state titles. Knight will team with two 2024 Tennessee commits, corner Kaleb Beasley and inside linebacker Edwin Spillman, and will square off with MacIntyre and Brentwood Academy on October 20, 2023.

MacIntyre is the headliner for most Tennessee residents. His late grandfather, also named George MacIntyre, was the head coach at Vanderbilt and UT-Martin before retiring in 1999. The football connections continue for the younger George - his uncle, Mike MacIntyre, is the current head coach at FIU, was the head coach at Colorado from 2013-18, and was the head coach at San Jose State from 2010-13. The youngest MacIntyre was built to throw the football, and he does so at a high rate - the primary contenders in his recruitment are Alabama, LSU, Michigan, and Tennessee.

2025 QB Deuce Knight during the Overtime 7-on-7 tournament in Los Angeles, California, on June 16, 2023. 

While there's pressure for Tennessee to land the home-state five-star, they have been actively recruiting Knight for over a year. Sources confirm that the Vols would accept Knight's commitment if he wanted to announce before MacIntyre had made a decision - they were one of his first calls on August 1, which Knight was expecting. His early suitors are Notre Dame, Ole Miss, and Tennessee. He visited the Rebels and the Fighting Irish over the past week and even received a crystal ball to Notre Dame after he visited South Bend, Indiana.

2025 projects to be a talented batch of recruits, and one Tennessee should do well in. Eight rising juniors in Tennessee are ranked in the top-247 players on 247Sports.com. That's the state's highest tally since 2017, which also produced eight. Six of those guys went on to play NFL snaps, which underscores how much talent could be in the fold for Tennessee. However, their first big decision will be between the two quarterbacks and how they approach this situation.

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