Tennessee football pulled out a 24-17 win at Arkansas on Oct. 10 despite three turnovers from sophomore quarterback George MacIntyre, making his first career start in place of five-star freshman Faizon Brandon.
MacIntyre completed 18 of 29 passes for 247 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. He was sacked twice and lost a fumble. But he did just enough behind a 138-yard effort from DeSean Bishop to help the No. 14 Vols (5-1, 2-1 SEC) snap a five-game road losing streak against Arkansas (2-4, 0-3).
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“I do think he finished really strong. But there were some really good things early in the football game too. This game comes down to the finest of details,” UT coach Josh Heupel said.
MacIntyre’s started the game efficiently. He completed 12-of-17 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown before committing an inexplicable fumble in the closing seconds of the first half that cost the Vols a chance at a double-digit halftime lead.
“Right before half, the fumble, he’s just got to clear the (running) back,” Heupel said. “That’s something that’s Day 1.”
But MacIntyre shook off the fumble and two second half interceptions. He connected on three explosive plays − a 22-yard pass to Braylon Staley, a 68-yard completion to Da’Saan Brame and a 33-yard pass to Mike Matthews − that set up decisive scores in the third and fourth quarters.
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It wasn’t a clean game from MacIntyre, who learned on Oct. 5 that he would be making his starting debut, but Heupel was pleased with how he bounced back from every mistake.
“I thought he did some really great stuff in adverse situations, just playing the next play, pulling the trigger,” Heupel said. “And it was a winning performance by him ultimately.”
Stephen Thompson covers Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball. Email him at stephen.thompson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @stephenethom.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: What Josh Heupel said about George MacIntyre, first start for Tennessee football
