247Sports is high on Tennessee Vols2026 five-star quarterback commit Faizon Brandon, ranking the Greensboro, NC native as the No. 1 overall player in the nation.
On3, however, isn’t quite as high on Brandon.
At one point, Brandon was ranked by On3 as the No. 6 overall player in the 2026 recruiting class.
Last fall, On3 updated their recruiting rankings and Brandon fell to No. 28 in their overall rankings, despite a strong start to his junior season of high school football.
This week, On3 once again updated their recruiting rankings and Brandon again fell several spots.
The Tennessee commit is now ranked by On3 as the No. 34 overall player in the 2026 recruiting class.
Everyone has their own method of evaluating high school prospects, and none of those methods are perfect, but I’m not sure what On3 is seeing that the rest of us are missing.
Brandon had a tremendous year in 2024 as he was named the 2024 Gatorade North Carolina player of the year.
The 6-foot-4 quarterback also led his high school, Grimsley, to a win in the state championship game this past season. Brandon, in fact, was named the MVP of the state championship game after passing for 182 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for a touchdown in a 35-23 victory over Rolesville (the game was played at the North Carolina Tar Heels’ stadium in Chapel Hill).
Brandon finished the 2024 season with 2,814 passing yards, 35 touchdown passes, 600 plus rushing yards, and nine rushing touchdowns.
I don’t know how that kind of performance results in a player falling in the recruiting rankings. Brandon is a great athlete, an accurate passer, and most importantly, he’s a winner.
Fortunately for Brandon and the Volunteers, recruiting rankings have no impact on performance. It’s still perplexing, though, that On3 isn’t fully buying into Brandon as the potential best player in the 2026 class.