5-star freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon won the starting job and looked pretty good through three games this season. However, a shoulder injury halted all of that against Texas in the first conference game of the season. Brandon was able to start the game against Auburn, but the injury clearly changed his ability throwing the football.
Josh Heupel turned to George MacIntyre, who has been fairly steady under center since. Following a bye week, Brandon was finally healthy enough to get a look on the
field. It’s been something that we’ve talked about in recent weeks — if Tennessee is going to be such a run heavy team, why not use Brandon’s athletic ability some in certain situations?
That’s exactly what Tennessee did over the weekend against Kentucky. A new wrinkle, just a week off of debuting Mike Matthews in the wildcat look, placed Brandon back on the field. The results came instantly, resulting in a couple of big plays.
“Some of the situational stuff that we were able to use him in created first downs,” Heupel said on Monday. “He was a major part of that. Explosive run, or pass, to Mike (Matthews). It gives the defenses another thing to prepare for. But those things work because of the execution. The quarterback and the talented guys around him, too.”
Brandon took a quarterback sweep play for 29 yards to set up Tennessee in scoring position during his first try. That play could have easily gone for six. A misdirection jet-pass to Mike Matthews later in the game did go for six.
That’s the second game in a row that the staff has found a creative way to get Mike Matthews, one of the best athletes on the team, involved in the offense. For a team that currently has an inconsistent passing attack, plays like these are huge to get the ball in the hands of your best players. It’s also big to get Brandon back involved after missing the middle chunk of the season with the shoulder issue.
“Faizon, the last week-and-a-half, two weeks, has gotten back to being close to 100%,” Heupel said over the weekend. “Wanted to utilize his skill set in this game in some of the situational football and apply pressure to defenses in another way.”
All of this on tape gives Texas A&M, LSU and Vanderbilt even more to worry about in the coming weeks. It’s no longer just DeSean Bishop coming downhill, the Tennessee staff is getting creative here in the homestretch. It’s probably a matter of time until you see some real, downfield passing out of this look. And then things could really get fun.
