Heath Shuler Shares His Honest Thoughts and Insight on Tennessee QB Faizon Brandon

The Tennessee Volunteers are set for one of the bigger road games of the season, as they are taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville.

The big storyline for this game is George MacIntyre getting the start for the Vols, while Faizon Brandon is battling an injury. While many believed that the Auburn game was a bad showing for Brandon, and it was, many must realize that Brandon was playing injured, which is something that Heath Shuler recently discussed.

Heath Shuler's Comments on Tennessee Freshman Quarterback Faizon Brandon's Showing Against Auburn

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Faizon for being tough enough to want to go out and play. There’s a difference between playing hurt and playing injured, and I truly believe that Faizon was injured. I know he wanted to be out there and play. But when you are injured the way he has been with his shoulder, sometimes the performance really lacks. I watched him during warmups, and he just didn’t have the zip on the ball. I knew that he was controlling the number of throws that he had during warmups. Just watching him during that process, I realized pretty quickly that he truly was injured. From a coach's standpoint, you want your quarterback — the starting quarterback — to go in and play and give him an opportunity, and I think that’s the reason why Coach Heupel made that decision. Things weren’t clicking — he really couldn’t get the ball down the field. Oftentimes, mentally, in the back of your head, you’re thinking about your injury. So I think Coach Heupel’s decision to put George in the game was the right one," Shuler said, according to A-to-Z Sports reporter Zach Ragan.

Brandon would later find himself on the injury report for the Arkansas game, and is now set to be the backup to George MacIntyre after the second-year quarterback had a solid showing against the Auburn Tigers.

This is no secret now that the quarterback is truly injured, rather than being banged up. While many great coaches have said this in the past, this is especially true now. "No one is fully healthy after day one of practice." I believe this to be a true statement. This is especially true when it comes to playing in the SEC, as there are no cupcake teams in conference play.

The Vols quarterback could very well miss the game against Arkansas, but as Josh Heupel mentioned in his press conference on Monday, their main focus with their freshman quarterback is getting him healthy and ready to go. With that being said, MacIntyre gets his shot at the quarterback position, while Ryan Staub could be elevated to the backup quarterback if Brandon is ruled out for the contest on the road.

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