It’s instructive, on this long-awaited decision day for Tennessee football, to think back on the first big quarterback decision Josh Heupel faced as Vols coach.
All it took was watching Joe Milton throw a football one time to be blinded by the arm talent and understand why Heupel preferred him to start the coach’s 2021 debut in Neyland Stadium
. The better choice, though, for his Vols would've been the other guy, as Hendon Hooker made clear soon enough.Since 2022, when Hooker would’ve made the CFP and probably the Heisman Trophy ceremony were it not for a horribly timed knee injury and inexplicable defeat in South Carolina, it has become accepted in UT football lore how Heupel judged that first QB competition incorrectly.
But did he?
As a Dallas
Cowboys backup, Milton is playing well. He has 286 yards and three touchdowns on 21-of-28 passing during two games this preseason. Meanwhile, Hooker is fourth-string for the Tennessee Titans, behind Will Levis and barely receiving any practice reps. The NFL, collectively, seems to have agreed with Heupel’s initial take.
But it's different for quarterbacks under Heupel at Tennessee. This wasn’t an isolated example.
You had the Hooker-Milton years. You also had Joey Aguilar show up as an 11th-hour transfer and crush it after about 15 minutes on campus, outperforming his departed, hyped predecessor. Maybe last season's Vols fare better with former five-star recruit Nico Iamaleava, but after seeing Nico's traveling act at UCLA, I'm not so sure about that. Aguilar produced a wonderfully clutch season in Knoxville. Then he didn’t get drafted by the NFL.
The lesson, again, is that talent evaluation by traditional quarterbacking norms is not a reliable indicator of success in Heupel's offense. Nor is a lack of seasoning or recruiting stars sure to doom a quarterback to failure in Heupel’s system. You just don't really know. This offense is too distinct. Too difficult to predict.
Which shouldn't be forgotten in the white smoke over the Thornton Center on the morning of Aug. 24, bringing resolution at long last to the Vols' great quarterback competition of 2026.
It's Faizon Brandon over George MacIntyre.
I get it.
I can't argue with it. After attending Tennessee's spring game in April, I came away saying, “I think it's going to be Brandon," and the more I’ve discussed that with football people in recent months, more of them kept agreeing, including some with a much stronger sense for what was truly going on inside the Vols' program.
And none of that, it must be noted, ever reflected disappointment in MacIntyre.
I’ve been impressed by MacIntyre during all this. He's a sharp kid. Has this quiet maturity to him that’d make you OK with handing him your car keys and credit card while asking him to babysit for you.
On the field, he’s an accurate passer. Plays composed. Knows where to go with the football. In spring, he didn't seem rattled or sped up in Tennessee's system. The moment wasn't too big for him.
MacIntyre would've been just fine as Tennessee's choice.
But here's the thing: Heupel has already done “just fine.” They are apt words for his tenure to this point. It's been fine. Not great. Good enough, but mostly just because he’s been better than his predecessors, at least until you go back to Phillip Fulmer.
What Brandon (and those five-star recruiting chops) offers is the tantalizing prospect of more than fine. He has what the Vols of Fulmer's heyday had before it became way too scarce in Knoxville:
Elite talent and upside.
Brandon can play. That alone makes it understandable why he was the preferred choice for Heupel, who’s trying to kick down the door to college football’s penthouse after failing to do that yet.
But there’s no answer key to this. At Tennessee, we’ve already witnessed how finding the "most talented" quarterback isn't the same as finding the right quarterback for Heupel's offense. The first part can be easy. The second part? Not so much. Even Heupel himself has failed to detect those qualities in his quarterbacks before getting a chance to watch then flourish (or not) on Saturdays.
Brandon is Tennessee’s quarterback today, and there’s good reason.
But note that Heupel named Brandon the starter for Week 1 – and only Week 1. When pressed by reporters in Knoxville, Heupel wouldn't guarantee Brandon as Tennessee’s quarterback beyond that.
Good reason for that, too, as we've seen.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Faizon Brandon will have to keep earning Tennessee's starting job this season | Estes
