Tennessee football is in the midst of a quarterback battle that begins in spring camp. As the second spring practice concluded on Tuesday, Vols freshman signal caller Faizon Brandon met with the media.
The former five-star recruit was asked about the battle, his teammates, adjusting to college and more.
Here’s what he said.
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On his first two spring practices
“I think they’ve been pretty good. Just going over to all the installs and stuff. I think it’s been good to finally get out there and start to gel with the team and start to feel everybody out, since I’m new to the team, and just really be able to start gelling with everybody.”
On if he feels like a new QB learning or a guy that can start
“I feel like it’s just competing every day. Taking it day by day and just trying to learn and go out there and make everybody better. I feel like when everybody’s competing together, it makes, obviously, the whole room better. So I’ll just be competing every day and just taking it day by day and see where it leads.”
On his relationship with George MacIntyre
“I knew George, I think before I committed. I used to talk to him a lot. I would say I have a pretty good relationship with him. I’d say it’s kinda the same as everybody on the team. I have a pretty good relationship with everybody. So I’d say just have a good relationship with him.”
On why he peer recruited after he committed
“I would say I wanted to come in with a good class, have good receivers, good o-line, gel. I just wanted to, I would say, help make the program better and have great guys come in with me.”
On the difference between college and high school
“I’ll say it’s definitely faster. I’d say a lot more, but I would say in a good way. You’re just surrounded by great guys. Everybody was a five-star, four-star, everybody was highly ranked and stuff. So it’s just, I’d say you’re always surrounded by a lot of good guys.”
On adjusting to the speed
“Yeah, definitely. I wasn’t trying to say it in a bad way, but I guess it’s just faster wide receivers, stuff like that. Just faster guys all around.”
On how he’s approaching spring practice
“I would say just taking it day by day, trying to learn as much as possible, take the coaching the right way. You know, whenever the coach is coaching somebody else, another quarterback, just listening to what he’s saying and just soaking everything in so I can make myself better.”
On adjusting to the offense
“I would say learning the offense hasn’t been hard with the tools they gave us. You can study on your own, have our own iPad and stuff to look over everything. So I would say with that it makes it easy. So if you just do your part, studying by yourself and stuff, then it makes it easier to learn the offense.”
On if being a student of the game is familiar
“Yessir. We had to do that in high school. Our coach would give us the installs on Sunday, and we had the whole week to — well, before Friday — to learn a new play and stuff like that. So it’s kinda similar.”
On how many hours a week he watches film by himself
“I don’t know. I couldn’t really give you a number, but I know I’m doing it here. After practice, I’ll go watch film with the coach. Then I’ll go home, probably look over it some more, and then look over the new install that we’ll probably have for the next day. So I don’t know if I can give you how many hours I put in there, but I know it’s probably a lot.”
On what excites him about this offense
“I would just say being surrounded by guys that did good last year. You got a lot of guys coming back, the receivers and stuff, then we got new guys coming in. I would just say playing the defense from last year, they’re pretty good, will make us a lot better, make me better and get more used to being on the SEC level.”
On how his skillset fits the offense
“I feel my skill set fits the offense pretty well. Coach Joey and Coach Heup are just tweaking it to make myself even better for the offense.”
On how he would describe his skillset
“I’ll say, how the offense is, I feel like I’m a good pocket passer. And then we have some QB runs, stuff like that in there, too. I feel like I can run pretty well. So, I feel like I can do what we need to do, and if the play breaks down or anything, I’m able to use my legs.”
On what he learned sitting with injury for part of his senior year of high school
“I would say me sitting out and stuff definitely made me be more grateful for football, being able to play the game ’cause, you know, that was my first time really ever being injured and not being able to play. So it definitely makes you just be grateful and know that things can be taken away any second. So it just made me be grateful and made me love the game way more.”
On if his injury made him more patient
“Yeah, for sure. It definitely made me wanna just look into, pay attention to every detail. Just make sure I’m doing everything right and not cutting any corners. Just working hard all the time.”
On taking coaching as a five-star recruit
“I just take it and try to use it on the next rep that I have. I don’t take it in a bad way or anything. I just see it as a way, something that can make me better. So I just try to the next rep I have just try to apply what he said.”
On throwing to WRs Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews
“It’s definitely great being able to look for them and stuff after seeing them make big plays and stuff like that all last year. I would say it’s definitely very fun, and they’re great guys outside of football also. So I have a great relationship with both of them, and I would say it’s very fun to have them on our team.”
On five-star freshman WR TK Keys
“It’s been pretty cool. We’re both learning the offense and just seeing him every day after only seeing him a few visits and stuff like that is pretty cool. And me and him, obviously, our bond has gotten stronger than when we were recruits last fall.”
On what OC Joey Halzle is working on him with
“I’ll say the main thing is just really with all the coaches, the lower body, making sure that we’re using our lower body a lot, just triggering and making sure we’re not getting too, I would say, static, just like in one place. Just making sure we’re always on our toes, kind of bouncing and ready to throw the ball at any moment.”
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