Tennessee football still has plenty to sort out before the 2026 season arrives, but Saturday’s Orange & White game provided an early look at where the program stands.

The Vols leave spring with more questions than answers, most notably at quarterback, as the battle for the starting job remains wide open. At the same time, competition across the roster is beginning to take shape, giving the staff plenty to evaluate as they head into the offseason.

Here are three takeaways from Tennessee’s 2026 Orange & White game.

Iron sharpens iron across the roster

If there was one consistent theme throughout Saturday’s scrimmage, it was competition.

In the trenches, Tennessee’s returning offensive linemen, including David Sanders Jr., Wendell Moe and Sam Pendleton, were matched against a retooled defensive front that added new faces through the transfer portal. The result was a back-and-forth battle, with neither side establishing consistent control.

It’s both sides of the football,” head coach Josh Heupel said. “There’s competition inside of the position room and good young talent that just has to continue in their growth.”

That same competitiveness showed up on the outside. Tennessee’s secondary largely limited separation throughout the day, with the lone breakdown resulting in Ryan Staub’s touchdown pass to Carson Whitehead.

“There’s new faces in the building on the defensive side, so I don’t get to see the people I saw last year, all the techniques,” wide receiver Braylon Staley said. “So I just got to stay in the film room, study our DB’s. The boys are good, though.”

Overall, the scrimmage reflected a roster still finding its identity, with competition driving development on both sides of the ball.

Quarterback battle remains wide open

The biggest question surrounding Tennessee heading into the fall remains unchanged: there is no clear starting quarterback.

All three signal-callers showed flashes, but none created meaningful separation. Staub accounted for the game’s only touchdown and led all quarterbacks in total points, but inconsistency was a common theme throughout the group.

Freshman Faizon Brandon displayed his ability to extend plays, while both he and George MacIntyre showed mobility that could become a factor moving forward. Still, sustained drives and efficient execution were difficult to find.

“Each of them have to be on their journey of building and mastering their fundamentals, technique, ownership and the scheme,” Heupel said. “And that’s what we do, and then mastering what’s happening on the other side of the football, too.”

That emphasis on fundamentals was echoed by the quarterbacks themselves. Brandon and Staub pointed to lower-body mechanics as an area for improvement, while MacIntyre emphasized pre-snap operation and overall consistency.

“Just trying to be perfect, operationally,” MacIntyre said. “Pre-snap, post-snap, after the ball is snapped, being defined with your eyes and your feet.”

With limited production and no clear standout, the competition remains firmly open heading into the offseason.

Defense may be slightly ahead

While the offense showed flashes, Tennessee’s defense set the tone for much of Saturday’s scrimmage.

Consistent pressure from the defensive front disrupted all three quarterbacks, making it difficult to establish rhythm. Combined with a secondary that limited separation, the unit forced the offense into a largely uneven performance.

“Defensively overall, our guys have grasped what we’re doing,” Heupel said. “Defensively, communicated at a really high level, continued to get better fundamentally, continue to train and work into better body positioning in tackling.”

Much of that early progress can be tied to the arrival of defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, whose scheme has already begun to take shape this spring. With several familiar faces from his previous stop, including senior linebacker Amare Campbell, the transition has been smoother than expected.

“Coach Knowles preaches it all the time, be a team on the rise,” linebacker Jeremiah Telander said. “So at first, if there’s some mistakes here and there, you have to clean them up and you cannot make the same mistake twice. And I feel very confident in our defense that we did that.”

Even with the key addition of Chaz Coleman still unavailable, Tennessee’s linebacker unit stood out as a position of strength. Veterans like Telander, Arion Carter and Ty Redmond, combined with newcomers such as Campbell and Qua Moss, to form a group that played fast and showed depth throughout the scrimmage.

Taken together, the performance suggests a defense that may be ahead of the learning curve, an encouraging sign as Tennessee continues to build its identity heading into the fall.