Grismley High quarterback Faizon Brandon named NC’s Mr. Football for the 2024 season
Greensboro Grimsley quarterback Faizon Brandon has been named Mr. Football for the 2024 season.
The honor, bestowed by The Charlotte Observer and News & Observer in Raleigh, goes to the top high school football player in North Carolina. The first Mr. Football was named in 2020.
Brandon and Grimsley will receive a banner to hang in the school’s gymnasium to honor his achievement.
“He’s poised. He’s calm. He just commands the offense. He’s just really smooth,” Hough football coach Shawn Baker said of Brandon. Grimsley defeated Hough in the regional semifinals.
Brandon, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound junior, has led Grimsley to a 15-0 record and a berth in Friday’s N.C. 4A state championship against Rolesville High, a Wake County school just outside of Raleigh. The teams will play at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.
This season,. Brandon was named the No. 1 recruit nationally among juniors by 247 Sports and has committed to Tennessee.
He has completed 157 of 204 passes, a completion rate of nearly 80 percent. And he’s thrown for 2,632 yards and 33 touchdowns against just one interception.
This fall, Brandon’s family sued the state, saying he lost out on substantial NIL money due to then current rules, which did not allow public school NIL deals.
In October, a Wake County judge signed a preliminary injunction that immediately gave N.C. public school students access to their NIL rights, something that the state’s private school students already had.
The lawsuit provided little distraction to Brandon’s on field play, however, as he led a team that is averaging 47 points per game, steamrolled through opponents in the regular-season, and then beat Charlotte Catholic and Weddington — a pair of schools with multiple state championships — as well as then nationally-ranked Hough in the playoffs.
“He has a live arm,” Hough coach Baker said, “and he doesn’t mind running and getting the tough yards when he needs it. He plays with a lot of swagger and I understand why he’s No. 1 in the country. Against us, they didn’t throw much (Brandon was 6 of 9 for 118 yards and the winning TD pass) but watching Weddington (in the semifinals last week), some of the balls he put out there were amazing, and the way he didn’t get rattled when they were down 10-0 was amazing, too.”
Previous winners
2023: Jadyn Davis, Providence Day
2022: Jadyn Davis, Providence Day
Fall 2021: Omarion Hampton, Cleveland
Spring 2021: Daylan Smothers, Chambers
2020: Henry Rutledge, Charlotte Christian
Note: Public schools didn’t play in the fall of the 2020-21 school year because of COVID. A shortened season was held in the spring of 2021.
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
