Why Faizon Brandon, No. 1 overall 2026 recruit and star Tennessee QB commit, is built to thrive for Vols

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Spend a few minutes with the nation's top recruit and you quickly come away impressed by the natural ease with which he carries himself. 

Faizon Brandon is polite yet quiet, unassuming in a sense and yet well equipped to handle all the pressure and attention that come with being 247Sports' No. 1 player in its 2026 rankings. At 6-foot-4, 200 pounds and with an arm that can throw the ball 70 yards, Brandon already looks and acts the part. 247Sports' director of scouting Andrew Ivins says Brandon is the kind of quarterback who "can be the catalyst for multiple College Football Playoff runs."

That would be great news for Tennessee -- where Brandon has been committed to since August 2024 -- as the program is coming off its first playoff appearance a season ago. It's understandable if Tennessee fans, licking their wounds over how things worked out with their last five-star quarterback to guide a playoff run, are still holding back some excitement. Here comes another well-compensated, highly regarded QB and NIL trailblazer (more on that later). 

But Brandon isn't Nico Iamaleava. The Tennessee quarterback commit has the perfect disposition -- and a strong support system to back it up -- to manage this new era of college football. 

"You would never know if he threw five touchdowns or if he just threw five straight incompletions, he's the same on the field," Darryl Brown, Brandon's high school coach, told CBS Sports. "He doesn't show a ton of emotion, he doesn't get down when things aren't going well. I think that makeup will benefit him. He doesn't have to be loud and vocal; having that calm demeanor is going to help him." 

Says Brandon, "That's just who I am. I'm not the type to get too hype or get too low. Just stay even."

If he can keep that mentality when he's playing in front of 100,000-plus fans in SEC stadiums, he'll be well on his way to success. It has already carried him this far as the type of QB and teammate that every program in the country would love to have on its campus. Many have tried to get him to reconsider his Vols commitment, including a few SEC rivals, though Brandon is locked into playing for Josh Heupel. He loves the offensive scheme and is excited about playing for not only Heupel but also offensive coordinator Joey Halzle, his primary recruiter. 

"I like that he played quarterback," Brandon says about his future coach. "He knows how to coach a quarterback. How calm he is in the game even when they are not up."

Even while admitting he was excited when he became ranked the No. 1 overall player, it was quickly back to work and no changing of the routine that got him to that lofty perch in the first place. Everyone you ask about Brandon raves about his humbleness and how well-liked he is within the community. 

With that mentality has come tremendous success at Grimsley High School in North Carolina. Grimsley holds one of the nation's longest win streaks and has gone 29-1 with Brandon as the starter, which includes a perfect 16-0 record and state championship last season. Brandon scored four touchdowns in the state title game (3 passing, 1 rushing), but what outsiders don't know, his coach says, is how much he sacrificed along the way to win that championship. 

"We had a really good running back and a lot of people think that we're throwing it 40, 50 times a game, and there's nights where we threw it 10 times because that's what it took for us to win," Brown said. "He's just willing to do whatever it takes. I think that speaks volumes about the kind of kid he is and the kind of player he is."

While Brandon doesn't seek the spotlight, it found him when he made national headlines almost exactly a year ago when his mother, Rolanda, filed a lawsuit on his behalf, suing the state of North Carolina for restricting public high school athletes from profiting off their NIL rights. A big move like that is going to upset people and Brandon faced backlash over it, but it wasn't simply about him making money. That was a component, no doubt, and the complaint references a lucrative marketing deal with a trading card company Brandon was unable to profit from because of North Carolina laws. 

Brandon was the face of the movement, but it was meant to benefit everyone. It struck the Brandon family as particularly unfair that private school students in North Carolina could do so while public students couldn't. And when a judge ruled in Brandon's favor, it opened the doors for every North Carolina high school athlete to monetize their NIL rights. In typical Brandon fashion, if you hadn't seen the national headlines, you would have no idea he had just scored a major legal victory. He never brought it up to his teammates or made a big deal about it in school. 

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Brown says that lawsuit changed high school football in North Carolina. While he was never that concerned about Brandon leaving Grimsley, he thinks other top public high school players would have left for private schools if the rules never changed. 

"I supported them 100 percent, and I think they went about it the right way," Brown says. "They weren't flamboyant about it, they just handled their business behind the scenes. Obviously, it's great for Faizon, but I really think that the reason they pursued it is for the kids that come behind them, and if it hadn't have happened, I think you could have seen a loss of kids leaving public schools."

There were opportunities for Brandon to reclassify and enroll early at Tennessee this spring after Iamaleava left the program in April, but he opted to finish his senior season at Grimsley. The path to a repeat state championship begins Friday, Aug. 22 against West Charlotte. The goal is to double that 16-game winning streak and add a third state title in four seasons. From there, he's expected to graduate in December and be in Knoxville before he turns 18-years old.

The unflappable heir to the Tennessee QB throne is ready for what's next. In what has been an offseason of drama for Tennessee, the future is even brighter with Brandon on the way soon.