4 Tennessee Volunteers Breakout Candidates for 2026 College Football Season
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The 2026 college football season is here, and there is plenty of excitement in Knoxville right now regarding the Tennessee Volunteers. While challenging for a College Football Playoff spot this year is unlikely, the amount of young talent on the Volunteers’ roster gives them a bright future and a chance for multiple players to become big names this fall.
Let’s dive into our list of Tennessee breakout candidates this fall.
Faizon Brandon, Quarterback
We’ll start with the most obvious pick: the 18-year-old true freshman starting quarterback. Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood (11-9 TD-INT and a 60.3% completion rate) is an example that despite being a five-star recruit, a teenager’s first season as a starter for a Power 4 program can be rough. However, Faizon Brandon is taking the field in a better situation. The Volunteers’ offensive line is one of the best in college football, and head coach Josh Heupel’s system is extremely quarterback-friendly. Brandon will put up good numbers as a dangerous dual-threat quarterback, earning SEC Freshman of the Year honors and being viewed nationally as the future best quarterback in the conference.
Related: Bold Predictions for Tennessee Volunteers’ Week 1 Opener
Travis Smith Jr., Wide Receiver
Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley will obviously be Tennessee’s leading receivers this season, but we’ve also got our eye on Travis Smith Jr. A 247Sports four-star recruit in the 2025 class, the 6-foot-3 receiver provides the length and physicality the team needs on the outside. He’s already been developing some rapport with Brandon, and with tight end Ethan Davis’ durability issues, there could be more red-zone targets for Smith. There could be 500-plus receiving yards and 6 touchdowns on the table for Smith this season.
Related: Game-by-Game Tennessee Volunteers Predictions
Xavier Gilliam, Defensive Tackle
It has been said since defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was hired that it takes a few seasons for players to learn his system and start to really thrive in it. Fortunately for Tennessee, defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam followed Knowles over from Penn State. Gilliam, a former four-star recruit, didn’t see a ton of playing time in his first two years with the Nittany Lions. The 6-foot-2 defensive tackle has now developed entering his third year, and he is arguably the Volunteers’ best defensive lineman. While Gilliam enters the season with just 2 TFLs and 0.5 sacks in 17 career games, he will end the 2026 campaign with 8-plus TFLs and 4 sacks.
Ty Redmond, Cornerback
Tennessee has done an excellent job in recent seasons at developing some of the best cornerbacks in the SEC. Jermod McCoy transferred from Oregon State in 2024 and became a second-team All-American in his first year on campus. A year later, Colton Hood came over from Colorado and earned second-team All-SEC honors with Tennessee. We know that Ty Redmond earned third-team All-SEC honors as a freshman, and we are expecting a much bigger leap from him this season. At 6-foot-3, he offers outstanding length, and his athleticism speaks for itself. Now he has experience and a better feel for playing the position in the SEC, all the while getting coaching from Knowles along with assistant coaches Derek Jones and Anthony Poindexter. We think a McCoy-caliber season could be on the horizon for Redmond.
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