Tennessee OC Joey Halzle discusses George MacIntyre’s handling of backup role for Music City Bowl
By Andrew Olson
Published:
With Jake Merklinger planning to transfer, George MacIntyre will be Tennessee‘s backup quarterback for Tuesday’s Music City Bowl game against Illinois. Though MacIntyre might not get into the game, UT offensive coordinator Joey Halzle is pleased with how MacIntyre has responded.
“George has done a great job. When (we) first got to bowl prep, he was taking (backup) reps too, so this didn’t get just thrown on out of nowhere,” Halzle told reporters at a Monday media opportunity. “He was a guy that we knew that we needed to take December and use it basically as a new spring ball for him, so he could get started and start getting those reps coming out of that.
“… He’s a really competitive kid, really smart kid. Mature beyond his years. His pedigree, with a lot of college football is in his blood, and he’s been around it his whole life. So he handled it the way I expected him to — mature business-like. And I’m really happy with where he’s at right now. Feel comfortable if he has to go in the game then he’ll go play.”
MacIntyre saw limited action this season, throwing 9 passes in 2 appearances against East Tennessee State and New Mexico State. Out of Brentwood (Tennessee) Academy, MacIntyre was rated 4-stars, the No. 2 player in the state, No. 13 QB and No. 151 prospect in the Class of 2025 on the 247Sports Composite.
As for playing MacIntyre, head coach Josh Heupel said that will be dictated by the game.
“We’ll just kind of see how the game unfolds and what the identity of the game is,” Heupel told reporters. “Nothing where we’re planning on putting him in second series or anything like that.”
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
