Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel turned to sophomore quarterback George MacIntyre in relief of freshman Faizon Brandon midway through a 24-14 win for the Vols against Auburn at Neyland Stadium on Oct. 3.
Brandon was in the middle of the worst game of his still young career, having completed only three of eight passes for zero yards and an interception before being pulled with 3:42 left in the second quarter. Heupel said postgame the Vols (4-1, 1-1 SEC) will continue to evaluate the quarterback competition moving forward.
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“Faizon, ultimately, didn’t play his best football,” Heupel said. “But I’ve said it a bunch … we’re going to need them all throughout the course of the year. … The guys that had to step up did and we’ll be back in the building on Monday and continue to grow. There’s a lot of growth left for us on the offensive side of the football.”
Heupel told the ESPN broadcast at halftime that Brandon “just wasn’t operating” and that he “wasn’t feeling 100%.” But postgame, he downplayed the impact of any discomfort Brandon felt lingering from the loss to No. 1 Texas on Sept. 26.
“I don’t know that I would say that,” Heupel said postgame when asked if Brandon’s health affected his performance. “We’ll watch a little bit of the tape and see more of it. But we’ll go from there.”
Brandon wasn’t listed on any of the injury reports in the week leading up to the Auburn game despite taking 10 sacks and a number of other vicious hits against Texas.
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He exited the Texas game in the second quarter after suffering an apparent injury, but only missed a handful of plays before returning to the game. Brandon completed 17 of 29 passes for 145 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions in the 20-17 defeat at Neyland Stadium.
In relief of Brandon, MacIntyre threw for 86 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions while completing 80% of his passes. The Vols were able to protect him, too. Auburn (3-2, 1-2) sacked Brandon twice in less than two full quarters but got to MacIntyre only once.
MacIntyre was able to lean on 220 rushing yards and three touchdowns from running back DeSean Bishop.
Stephen Thompson covers Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball. Email him at stephen.thompson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @stephenethom.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: What Josh Heupel said about Faizon Brandon, benching for Tennessee football
