See Tennessee Football’s Jake Merklinger, George MacIntyre’s Stats In Orange & White Game

Tennessee football held its annual Orange & White game on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium. This year’s spring game had a little more intrigue than most after Nico Iamaleava’s departure to the transfer portal.

All eyes were on Tennessee’s two remaining quarterbacks on the roster— redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and early enrollee freshman George MacIntyre— as they received every single rep during the final practice and scrimmage of the spring.

Merklinger was Tennessee’s third string quarterback last season, completing six-of-nine passes for 49 yards in his two games played. MacIntyre was a four-star recruit in the 2025 recruiting class and is going through his first spring practice.

During the receiver/tight ends vs defensive backs one-on-one portion of practice and during the 7v7 portion of practice, Jake Merklinger was very effective. During the scrimmage portion of the Orange & White game, MacIntyre put together the best numbers.

Tennessee did not keep live stats during the scrimmage so all stats were hand kept by myself. So some of the yardages are estimates but all of the completions and attempts during the scrimmage was completely accurate. I might have missed a couple reps during one-on-ones and 7v7s. Apologies for that. With that, it’s on to the stats.

More From RTI: What Josh Heupel Said About Tennessee’s Approach To Adding Quarterback In Transfer Portal

One-on-Ones

Merklinger: 9-for-15

MacIntyre: 3-for-12, 3 interceptions

Notes: Merklinger made some really nice throws during this portion of practice, especially in the red zone portion. He threw beautiful fade routes to both Mike Matthews and Amari Jefferson. It wasn’t the best portion of practice for MacIntyre but one of the interceptions was on the receiver, not him.

7v7

Merklinger: 6-for-10, 1 touchdown, 1 interception

MacIntyre: 5-for-6, 1 interception

Notes: The highlight of this portion of practice was Merklinger connecting with Matthews on a deep down the left sideline. I missed four reps for MacIntyre so apologies there. MacIntyre threw mostly check downs in the reps I recorded. Merklinger pushed the ball down the field more. He sailed a throw to Matthews over the middle that Andre Turrentine intercepted.

Scrimmage

Merklinger: 7-for-15, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. 2 carries for 9 yards

MacIntyre: 11-for-15, 140 yards and 3 touchdowns. 8 carries for 35 yards

Notes: MacIntyre led three of Tennessee’s four touchdown drives, connecting with tight end Jack Van Doreselaer twice and Radarious Jackson once. Jackson made the play of the day on a MacIntyre deep ball later on, snagging a deep ball with one hand for a 34-yard drive. The early enrollee freshman was also efficient scrambling. He moved the sticks twice on third downs with his feet. Take some of that with a grain of salt given quarterbacks can’t be tackled.

Merklinger had some inaccurate throws but a couple really nice ones too. He connected with Travis Smith down the sidelines to move the sticks on third-and-long. Merklinger also connected with Trey Weary on a chuck play over the middle. His interception came on a throw down the field on fourth down so not the very worst type of pick.