Can Faizon Brandon bounce back against Auburn?

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Adversity struck Faizon Brandon for the first time in his college football career last weekend against No. 1 Texas. His offensive line had problems across the board, and a shoulder injury followed. All of that seemed to add up to a very rattled freshman quarterback, which is plenty understandable. It was his first career SEC start, after all.

The question becomes, how you do learn and move on from it? That’s the task ahead for Brandon, who will get a shaky Auburn secondary on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium.

“He wants to play at a high level,” Josh Heupel said this week. “He knows that he can and he needs to play better than he did Saturday. But that’s a young guy that, since he’s gotten here, has taken ownership, takes correction, incorporates it into his game and improves. Certainly expect that from him this week.”

Brandon missed his fair share of opportunities down the field, and likely had some tough film sessions this week. However, as Heupel has said this week, it was far from being all on him. Anyone that watched the game even somewhat closely knows what the weakness was. Tennessee is going to have to be better up front in both the run game and pass protection to give the freshman a chance.

“You know, I said at the beginning of the year, too, you got a young quarterback, the 10 other guys around him got to do their job at a high level to alleviate unforeseen circumstances for that guy, too,” Heupel said. “And that’s part of the ownership that everybody on the offensive side of the ball has to have.”

Little stuff like the play below is what cost Tennessee last weekend. It’s the difference between springing the upset and going home with a loss. Some freshman moments are certainly expected all season long, but Brandon’s season will be determined by how he learns from them going forward.

“In Saturday’s game, there’s windows and opportunities, timing, whatever it might be, where some of those things he’s got to let rip,” Heupel said, very likely with the play above in his head. “Things that he saw and things that maybe he missed. But that’s part of growing as a quarterback.”

Losing is foreign to Brandon. The former 5-star prospect lost just one time as the starting quarterback for Grimsley High School in North Carolina, putting together a 35-1 career record. Brandon won back to back state titles in 2024 and 2025.

Now, forced to develop on the fly while facing some of the most talented defenses in the country, it’s up to Brandon to determine how things go next.

“(Faizon was) certainly disappointed after the game, still felt some of that yesterday as he came into the building,” Heupel said of his quarterback’s reaction. “But (he’s) also eager to get back out there. He’s a competitor. He hasn’t lost in football in a long time, but he’s lost games. His ability to keep playing — not perfect, but keep plugging away — you can see that the other day. There’s some things that we’ve got to do better in some of those situations, but he’ll bounce back.”

Auburn ranks 109th nationally in passing yards allowed per game to this point, suggesting that Brandon may have an opportunity to get things back on track quickly on Saturday afternoon. Tennessee remains a 7.5 point favorite.

Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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