After freshman Faizon Brandon had won Tennessee football's starting quarterback job — a goal ever since he committed to the Vols two years earlier — his father finally revealed a strategy in his college recruitment.
It slipped out in a lighthearted way during an exclusive interview with Knox News in August before the 2026 season.
“I had one trick up my sleeve, and I didn’t let my wife and (Faizon) know,” Faizon’s father, Lenard “Fatz” Brandon, said. “I would look on social media to see the camps that the top (quarterbacks) were going to — the guys in Faizon’s class and the class above him. And those were the camps that we went to.”
Faizon’s mother, Rolanda, laughed and interrupted her husband after his confession.
“This is the first time I’m hearing
of this,” she said. “We’re going to have a talk about this after this interview.”
It was a savvy and selective plan to pit Brandon against the best quarterback recruits in the country, and markedly different than that of fellow five-star quarterback Arch Manning three years earlier.
The Mannings famously kept Arch’s recruitment relatively private. He didn’t attend camps that included other elite quarterback prospects, except his family’s Manning Passing Academy. He faced some criticism for skipping those camps at the time.
It’s an interesting contrast as Brandon leads 13th-ranked Tennessee (3-0) against Manning’s No. 1 Texas (3-0) on Sept. 26 (noon ET, ABC) at Neyland Stadium.
Circumstances dictated the contrast — namely, the Mannings’ high profile — but Brandon’s approach was based on his desire to compete against the best.
Telling Brandon’s story doesn’t disparage Manning’s strategy. But it highlights why the Vols coveted him.
How Faizon Brandon's dad followed elite QBs to camps
Brandon's recruiting journey was strategic, even if he didn’t realize it. He craved competition, so his father kept tabs on which camps the top quarterback prospects planned to attend.
When they posted on social media about an upcoming camp, Lenard signed up his son for the same event. In several instances, Faizon found himself participating in drills next to the top competition from a national perspective, which seemed like a coincidence to everyone except his dad.
“I’m going to get in trouble, but I can share these things now because it worked out,” Lenard said, still playfully poking at his wife during the interview. “But if there was a five-star guy (at a camp) and he had a name for himself, then we went there to see where you stand.”
Brandon, a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, got his first college offer as an eighth grader attending an East Carolina University camp. Coaches mistakenly thought he was an older player because of his size and skill, and he seemed to thrive under that misconception.
“Competition fuels Faizon. And he plays better against tougher competition, especially when it’s older guys,” Rolanda Brandon said. “So maybe there was a method to his (father’s) madness.”
Faizon Brandon challenged five-star QBs, starting at Tennessee
As Brandon's profile grew, he went to more college camps as a high school player. Then he extended his tour to regional camps, but only if elite quarterbacks were there for head-to-head competition.
The Brandons chose Tennessee’s camp in June 2023, when five-star quarterback Jared Curtis and four-star George MacIntyre also were there. Curtis is now a freshman at Vanderbilt, and MacIntyre is Brandon’s backup at Tennessee.
At a Florida State camp in 2024, Brandon competed with five-star quarterback Dia Bell and four-star Jaden O’Neal. Bell signed with Texas, and he’ll be on the sideline for the Tennessee game. O’Neal signed with Florida State.
Brandon and five-star Keisean Henderson became regular competitors on the camp circuit. Henderson, the No. 1 quarterback in the 2026 class, signed with Houston.
In 2024-25, Brandon went to regional camps to earn invitations to elite national combines. Along the way, he shared the field with top quarterbacks like Ryder Lyons (BYU signee), Jett Thomalla (Alabama), Bowe Bentley (Oklahoma), Jonas Williams (Southern Cal), Jake Fette (Arizona State), Landon Duckworth (South Carolina), Bryson Beaver (Georgia), Noah Grubbs (Notre Dame) and Helaman Casuga (Texas A&M).
Before Brandon's 17th birthday, he had gone head-to-head with all of the top 10 quarterbacks in his 2026 class, and most of them on multiple occasions.
“We were going to the camps where the top competition was at,” Lenard Brandon said. “He was a younger guy, but he is extremely competitive. And every time he would go to one of those camps, he would get good news (from coaches and recruiting analysts) after the camp.”
Arch Manning didn't go to camps with Nico Iamaleava
Tennessee became the first SEC school to offer Faizon Brandon a scholarship when he attended the Vols camp in June 2023. Coach Josh Heupel said seeing him perform live made a big difference in the evaluation.
“Getting a chance to work with a quarterback in person, seeing their motion, how the ball jumps out of their hand, and their ability to take coaching points and incorporate it quickly, that’s really important,” Heupel said on Sept. 23 while preparing for the Texas game.
But there are risks for elite quarterbacks as they climb the ladder of recruiting camps. On-campus workouts are relatively private, so news of a bad performance doesn’t reach far.
But regional and national camps can make or break a prospect’s rating. Recruiting analysts attend the events and reconfigure rankings based in part on head-to-head comparisons.
Manning did not attend high-profile events like Elite 11, Under Armour Future 50, National Navy Combine or Nike’s “The Next Ones” Combine. Three years later, Brandon went to all of them.
Manning instead attended an LSU camp, visited his preferred schools and competed in a 7-on-7 league near his Louisiana home. His recruiting rival, five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava, sought a head-to-head competition with Manning at camps, but that never happened.
This Tennessee game will be Arch Manning’s first visit to Knoxville. That’s somewhat surprising because his uncle, Peyton Manning, was an iconic Tennessee quarterback. But he didn’t consider the Vols among his top college choices, so he never visited campus.
Tennessee instead signed Iamaleava, the No. 2 quarterback in the 2023 class. He helped the Vols reach the College Football Playoff in 2024. Then he transferred to UCLA in 2025 after a dispute over NIL pay.
After Iamaleava left, Tennessee got UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar from the portal. He led the SEC in passing yards in 2025, but the Vols had an 8-5 record.
In December 2025, Tennessee signed Brandon, who had a comparable recruit rating to Manning and Iamaleava. He earned it by competing against the best at his position, following a strategy quietly carried out by his dad.
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
Get the latest news and insight on SEC football by subscribing to the SEC Unfiltered newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Faizon Brandon’s dad reveals recruiting trick that Arch Manning didn’t use | Exclusive
