Tennessee football seems to have settled on a quarterback this season. While head coach Josh Heupel still didn’t name George MacIntyre as QB1 over Faizon Brandon, instead noting they both practiced and did well on Wednesday, MacIntyre has been the guy since taking over just before halftime against Auburn.

Since then, MacIntyre has led UT to the second-half win over Auburn, a road win at Arkansas, a big rivalry win vs. Alabama and then a brutal road loss at South Carolina. With plenty of snaps now under his belt, Heupel gave some updated thoughts about the growth of the sophomore quarterback.

“Well, every exposure you have, you learn from, you gain confidence from,” Heupel said. “There’s some things he did at a really high level last Saturday (against South Carolina). There’s some things that he’s got to be a lot better in and would like to have back too.”

MacIntyre finished the game against the Gamecocks completing 16-of-23 passes for 136 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. He was also strip-sacked at the end of the game, leading to South Carolina’s game-winning kick.

However, the stat line doesn’t tell the full story. MacIntyre also threw three touchdown passes in the loss, but each was called back for penalties. The first two were with receivers lined up illegally, and the last was on a controversial hold.

“If you’re simply looking at results of plays, that can be extremely misleading,” Heupel said. “Stats that show up on a sheet that are hazardous reads, throws, whatever it might be, too. And so you’re looking at the full body of work.”

On the year, MacIntyre has appeared in six games. However, the opener against Furman was limited, the Texas game was in relief of Brandon for just one series and Auburn was for a little more than a half. In that time, he has posted 728 passing yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.