Tennessee football remained red hot on the recruiting trail on Saturday afternoon when the Vols beat out Alabama, LSU and North Carolina State for five-star class of 2026 prospect Faizon Brandon.
Brandon is a five-star quarterback in the 2026 recruiting cycle. He ranks as the No. 30 player in the country according to the 247sports composite rankings, but both 247sports and On3— the most respected recruiting websites— are much higher on Brandon.
247sports ranks Brandon as the No. 1 overall player in the 2026 recruiting cycle and On3 ranks Brandon as the No. 12 overall player in his class. ESPN (No. 32) and largely Rivals (N0. 134) ranking of Brandon is pulling down his composite ranking.
Landing the elite quarterback in the 2026 recruiting class is just the latest impressive recruiting win for Josh Heupel and his staff at the quarterback position. Over the 2023 to 2026 recruiting cycles, Tennessee has landed five-star Nico Iamaleava, four-star Jake Merklinger, four-star George MacIntyre and now Brandon.
More From RTI: Watch Faizon Brandon’s Sophomore Season Highlights
According to the On3 consensus rankings, Iamaleava was the No. 6 player and No. 3 quarterback in the 2023 recruiting cycle. Merklinger was the No. 201 player and No. 12 quarterback in the 2024 recruiting cycle. MacIntyre is the No. 50 player and No. 8 quarterback in the 2025 recruiting cycle and Brandon is the No. 12 player and No. 2 quarterback in the 2026 cycle.
If you combine the rankings of Tennessee’s quarterback signees/commits from the 2023 to 2025 recruiting cycle you get 23 (an average of the 7.67 best quarterback each class). The only programs with a rate as good as Tennessee’s over those three classes is Texas whose three quarterbacks commits are also combined for the 23rd best quarterbacks.
It’s a long way until signing day for the class of 2026 but with Tennessee bringing in currently the No. 2 quarterback in the country in that class, it’s extremely unlikely that Texas will be able to match.
While Josh Heupel and his staff have recruited at a solid but not an elite level, they have recruited quarterbacks at an elite level. Quarterback is the most important position on the field and Tennessee has set itself up to be elite at that spot.
Heupel has provided plenty of reasons for optimism about the future of the Vols’ program but the way Tennessee has recruited quarterbacks is chief amongst them.
