Faizon Brandon is off the board ahead of his junior season.
Brandon, one of the elite passers in the 2026 recruiting cycle out of Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley High School, declared for Tennessee on Saturday. The Vols beat out Alabama, LSU and North Carolina State for the No. 8-ranked quarterback in the Rivals250 for next year.
After a string of visits over the summer and again in the past week, Brandon was convinced that he fit best in Rocky Top around coaches like Josh Heuepl and Joey Halzle, who were early believers in him as a prospect.
"I love how live the environment is," Brandon told Rivals. "It's a great environment there with a lot of great people. When I go down there, I'm reminded of how strongly I feel about the program. The coaches, the players, the people around the place have had good things to say."
Brandon is very familiar with the ins and outs of Knoxville.
Since camping for Heuepel and the offensive staff last summer and collecting an offer in the process, the Rivals250 quarterback has returned on about a half-dozen occasions, including this past weekend ahead of his college decision.
Tennessee wasted no time entering Brandon's recruitment and never fell off in its pursuit of the elite quarterback from Carolina.
"They saw my potential very early ... when I had a good a camp and not a lot of film, they showed how much trust they had in me," Brandon asserted.
That relationship only blossomed over the past year and change.
Brandon cultivated strong connections with SEC rivals in Alabama and LSU, and N.C. State never relented in its pursuit of keeping the four-star quarterback in-state.
Heupel has a track record on the offensive side of the ball and, in particular, at the quarterback position. Those were among the factors that loomed the largest as Brandon geared up to have a decision in place before kicking off his junior year.
"It's a very good program over there," Brandon said. "Coach Heuepel is a very good coach. I'm able to talk to him and he has good things to say, good wisdom to share and he's a good guy to be coached by. Coach Halzle taught me a lot of good things. How he coaches up his quarterbacks is a big thing for me.
"Being developed over there caught my eye a lot with them. That's a pretty big aspect of what I've liked about them as well as the environment and the support system they have around the coaches there, too. It's a very good program."
