Josh Heupel has handed the Tennessee offense to a true freshman, and the number that matters most now is what Faizon Brandon does with it.
On Monday, Heupel told the team that Brandon will start at quarterback when No. 20 Tennessee opens the season against Furman on Sept.
- That makes Brandon only the second true freshman ever to open a season under center for the Vols, and the first since Brent Schaeffer did it against UNLV in 2004, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
It’s also new territory for Heupel himself. Across his head-coaching stops at UCF and Tennessee, he has never started a true freshman in a season opener. Brandon is not just stepping into the job; he’s becoming the first quarterback Heupel has trusted to do this in Week 1 without any college seasoning at all.
The history of Heupel’s first-year starters gives Tennessee fans a pretty clear range of outcomes.
Drew Lock was first. When Heupel’s offense arrived at Missouri in 2016, Lock completed 237 of 434 passes, a 54.6 percent clip, for 3,399 yards, 23 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, according to Sports-Reference.com and Missouri Athletics.
The production was real, but so were the rough edges. The breakout came a year later, when Lock turned that base into a 44-touchdown, All-SEC season.
Hendon Hooker is the cleaner comparison for Brandon. In Heupel’s first season at Tennessee in 2021, Hooker completed 68 percent of his throws and posted a 31-to-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
The next year, he was even better before a torn ACL against South Carolina in November ended his season. Hooker finished with 3,135 passing yards and 32 total touchdowns in 11 games, and Tennessee still went 11-2 and beat Clemson 31-14 in the Orange Bowl.
Joe Milton got the spotlight in that game, throwing for 251 yards and three touchdowns, while Hooker watched from the sideline.
Last season’s starter, Joey Aguilar, may be the best present-day guide for what Brandon can expect in the box score. Aguilar threw for 274 yards per game and totaled 28 touchdowns, per Tennessee Athletics and Yahoo Sports.
He completed 67.3 percent of his passes, but he also threw 10 interceptions, matching Lock’s 2016 total for the most by any Heupel first-year starter. That’s the tradeoff in this system: the yards and scores can pile up fast, but the giveaways can decide how smooth the season feels.
Heupel has already shown that a true freshman can thrive in his offense. At UCF in 2019, Dillon Gabriel started 12 of 13 games as a true freshman and passed for 3,653 yards with 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The Knights finished 10-3, and it was proof that a rookie quarterback can handle this system if the talent and surrounding pieces are right.
Brandon appears to have plenty around him. Tennessee returns 74 percent of its offensive line snaps, with preseason All-SEC picks David Sanders Jr. and Wendell Moe Jr. up front, plus center Sam Pendleton, who has 19 career starts, including 12 at Tennessee and seven at Notre Dame.
On the outside, Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley both went over 800 receiving yards last season. In the backfield, DeSean Bishop is a preseason All-SEC Third Team pick and gives Brandon a real running-game partner.
Heupel said Brandon earned the job with the way he grew through fall camp and two scrimmages, beating out redshirt freshman George MacIntyre.
The outline is simple enough. If Brandon looks more like Aguilar, Tennessee should get big passing numbers and a healthy dose of touchdowns, with interceptions still part of the equation.
If he tracks closer to Hooker and takes care of the ball, the offense has a much higher ceiling. And if Heupel’s history with Dillon Gabriel carries any weight, a freshman can be special right away in the right setup.
Neyland Stadium will get the first answer on Sept. 5.
In Other News...
Tennessee Fans Need To Know Neylands New Game Day Plan
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville is rolling out a new traffic and parking setup around Neyland Stadium this fall, aiming to make football game days run a little smoother and a little safer. Fans who already have parking passes will be directed along designated routes and can also use shuttle options, while those without passes are being steered toward downtown parking and shuttle service instead of driving straight into the stadium area.
For Volunteers fans, the bigger change may be the amount of planning now required before kickoff. Several roads will be closed on game days, and the university is increasing police presence to help manage the flow of traffic around the stadium. It is the kind of behind-the-scenes adjustment that can make a long Saturday feel less chaotic, even if it means a different routine for anyone used to the old Neyland approach. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Is Finally Taking On Neylands Biggest Gameday Frustration
For years, one of the most familiar complaints around Neyland Stadium has had nothing to do with what happens between the lines. Tennessee Athletics, working with local partners, has now developed and tested new gameday traffic patterns that are set to go into place beginning with the 2026 football season opener, a move designed to make the trip to and from South Knoxville feel a lot less like a test of patience.
The plan spells out designated routes for fans with parking passes and gives guidance for those without them, while police and consultants will help manage traffic more aggressively on the back end to improve departures after events. It is the kind of behind-the-scenes fix that usually only gets noticed when it works, but for a stadium experience as big as Neylands, smoothing out the bottlenecks could end up mattering as much to fans as anything on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Freshman Gabriel Osenda Is Giving Vols Hope And A New Worry
Gabriel Osenda arrived in Knoxville in January and has spent preseason doing the kind of work that gets a young offensive tackle noticed quickly. The Tennessee freshman has been taking reps at both left and right tackle, and line coach Glen Elarbee has already put him in the same conversation as current starter Jesse Perry, which tells you how seriously the staff views his long-term upside.
The flip side is the part Tennessee has to watch closely. Osenda recently dealt with a lower-body injury severe enough to leave him in a walking boot and on crutches after the Vols first scrimmage, a reminder that promising linemen can go from intriguing depth piece to roster concern in a hurry. For Tennessee, the hope is obvious - a young tackle who could push for a starting job down the line - but so is the worry about how much time he can spend on the practice field between now and the opener. [Read more 🡒]