The Faizon Brandon Era Has Begun With The Tennessee Vols

Mon, Aug 24, 2026

Multiple reports this morning have indicated that the Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols will give freshman Faizon Brandon the keys to the offense in week one of the 2026 season. Brandon has been in a quarterback battle with George MacIntyre and with the new season starting soon, Brandon will get the chance to lead the Volunteers offense this year.

Video Transcript

Okay, we have a starting quarterback in Knoxville.

Multiple reports today are stating that Tennessee has named true freshman Faizon Brandon the starter for week one against Furman over George McIntyre.

Look, this is where things were trending after spring practice, but Josh Heupel and his coaching staff wanted to see Brandon continue that momentum into fall camp and take the starting QB job rather than just be handed it.

And this comes off the heels of the second fall scrimmage for the Vols in which Brandon reportedly had another nice day pushing the ball down the field.

Faizon Brandon was always the more upside player over George McIntyre, and that dual threat ability could really be what sets him apart.

And the exciting thing for Tennessee fans is that this coaching staff hasn't really gotten to see that dual threat ability in full effect at practice because you can't tackle the quarterback.

It's very hard to gauge a QB's running ability in a game setting during practice settings when you've got those non-contact jerseys on.

So that's something that Tennessee fans should be very excited about.

Now, the obvious question is, what kind of growing pains do we see from a true freshman starting for Josh Heupel, which has not happened yet in his era at Tennessee?

In fact, a true freshman has not started at quarterback in week one for the Vols since Brent Schaeffer, and we're going back 20 years in Tennessee football.