George MacIntyre leads Brentwood Academy football into semifinals, past Pope John Paul II

Nearly as quickly as it began a battle between two of the state's top quarterback prospects — Brentwood Academy's George MacIntyre and Pope John Paul II's Kenny Minchey — ended Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Division II-AAA state playoffs at Carlton Flatt Field.

It ended when Minchey, a four-star Pitt commitment, was unable to return to the field after playing parts of three series because of a shoulder injury he has struggled with for several weeks.

MacIntyre, a sophomore and the No. 2-ranked quarterback in country for the class of 2025, and the Eagles took advantage of Minchey's absence and coasted to a 38-7 win advancing to the TSSAA Division II-AAA semifinals.

MacIntyre completed 13-of-22 passes for 176 yards and had one touchdown pass and a touchdown run helping Brentwood Academy avenge a 24-21 loss to the Knights in the 2021 playoffs. Deuce Scott rushed for 143 yards on 14 carries and scored a touchdown.

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Brentwood Academy (9-2) hosts Chattanooga Baylor (9-2) in a Division II-AAA semifinal next Friday. Pope John Paul II finished the season 8-4.

MacIntyre, who is 6-foot-6, and Minchey, who is 6-1, have become friends. They train together with Thomas Morris of QB Country. They stay in touch and texted each other a few times this week leading up to Friday's game.

MacIntyre said he expected Minchey to play since after missing six games in the regular season Minchey was able to play last week and lead the Knights to a win over Briarcrest in the opening round of the playoffs.

"He's a really good player, but you could tell the injury limited him tonight," MacIntyre said. "It didn't really change my mentality at all. Our job is to put points on the board and the defense did a good job of stopping them whoever their quarterback was."

Minchey completed a 14-yard pass, fumbled and threw an incompletion before leaving the game for good on the Knights' final series in the first quarter.

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"I thought I was going to be able to play going into it," Minchey said with tears rolling down his cheeks. "My shoulder started hurting after the first drive."

Chet Lax, who played in the games Minchey missed, came in and moved the Knights offense up and down the field at times, but struggled to get it into the end zone. He completed 15-of-37 passes for 199 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

The Eagles put the game out of reach when MacIntyre hit tight end Griffin Cropp with a 14-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter to go up 24-0.

"George is awesome; he's a sophomore and he's matured like a senior," said Cropp, a senior who had two catches for 25 yards. "I mean he's out here balling. He came out this summer and he was just clicking. Obviously, when you're a freshman you don't get to play that much if it all. But he came out this summer, took the job and has been amazing."

MacIntyre has completed 150-of-236 passes for 2,077 yards with 19 touchdowns and four interceptions on the season. He is already being heavily recruited having heard from every SEC team expect Missouri and Arkansas.

That includes Vanderbilt and Tennessee. MacIntyre's grandfather George was the Vanderbilt coach from 1979-85 and MacIntyre said Vanderbilt will be a school he will likely consider.

"I've really enjoyed being recruited by Vanderbilt so far; they've done a good job," MacIntyre said. "I think coach (Clark) Lea is rebuilding the culture there for sure. He's done a really good job so far with his recruiting classes, with the way he's coached and they're on the right track."

MacIntyre's uncle Mike played at Brentwood Academy and Vanderbilt and is now the coach at Florida International. His father Matt played at Brentwood Academy and Western Kentucky.

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.