Photos: Tennessee Athletics
Josh Heupel’s quarterbacks keep producing. National media keeps acting like the next one is a coin flip.
That raises a simple question. Why?
Look at the board right now. CBS has Faizon Brandon 10th in the SEC. LaNorris Sellers is 5th. Byrum Brown is 8th. Keelon Russell is 7th. Pick your favorite SEC or National site. You won’t find Faizon in the top half of projections in any of them. Brandon is the first true freshman in that group, so some of that is understandable. What is not understandable is the habit. Every time Heupel hands the keys to a new quarterback, the projection comes with a shrug. Maybe this is the year it finally dips. Maybe this one finishes in the bottom half of the league.
It has never happened.
Not at Tennessee. Hendon Hooker was not even the Week 1 starter in 2021. Virginia Tech did not see him as the answer. He took the job and led the SEC in passer rating. A year later he was the SEC Offensive Player of the Year. Joe Milton was never the preseason darling in 2023 and still threw for 2,813 yards on a 9-4 team. Nico Iamaleava was a first year starter in 2024, threw for 2,616 yards, and Tennessee still went 10-3 and made the playoff.
Then there is Joey Aguilar. He did not get to Knoxville until the summer, a few months before the season kicked off, after looking like an interception prone, average quarterback at App State. Fourteen picks. Under 56 percent completion. That is what Heupel inherited. A few months later Aguilar was named the starter and led the SEC in regular season passing yards with 3,444. That is not a normal turnaround. That is a coach taking a portal quarterback who showed up late and flipping him into one of the most productive passers in the league.
Not at UCF. Dillon Gabriel was a freshman filling in after McKenzie Milton’s injury and still finished among the AAC leaders. In 2020 he led the conference and the nation in passing yards per game.
Not at Missouri. Drew Lock threw for 3,399 yards in 2016. In 2017 he led the SEC in passing yards and touchdowns.
Not at Oklahoma. Landry Jones led the Big 12 in passing and stayed near the top of the league every year he started.
The only year people can even point to is Utah State in 2015, when Kent Myers and Chuckie Keeton split the job. Put those numbers together and that offense still ranked 5th in a 12 team conference in passing.
So why do we keep seeing Heupel quarterbacks projected like the floor is about to fall out?
Because the logo next to the other guy still does extra work. Russell has a year on campus, 15 mop up attempts against Louisiana Monroe and Eastern Illinois, and the Alabama name. That is enough to slide him ahead of Brandon. Sellers had a down year and still sits five spots higher. Brown is new to Auburn and still sits ahead of a Heupel freshman because he has started games somewhere else. Experience and brand keep winning the projection. The record does not.
This is not me saying Sellers and Brown are bad quarterbacks. They are not. Alabama is still a good SEC team. The dynasty version is gone, and the media has not caught up. Ryan Williams can have an off year and still land first team All SEC. That is how much extra credit the old brand still gets. Heupel has to keep proving the same thing over and over, and it still does not buy his next quarterback the same respect.
Virginia Tech let Hooker walk. App State’s version of Aguilar was turnover prone and ordinary. Milton and Nico are examples of QB’s that didn’t fully click under Heupel but guess what. Still top half of the conference. Heupel churns out productive quarterbacks, and he did it with Aguilar in two months.
If national writers want Brandon outside the top five, I won’t disagree with them. He is a true freshman after all. But I will say that the chances are better of Brandon Finishing top five rather than bottom half. Stop projecting Heupel quarterbacks like they are due to finish in the bottom half of the conference. That has not happened at any point in his coaching career. Not as a quarterbacks coach. Not as a coordinator. Not as a head coach.
This has been going on for 20 years.
It is past time to put some respect on Heupel’s quarterbacks.