Brian Maurer enters his third season at Tennessee.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound quarterback has appeared in 12 games for the Vols. He started four contests as a freshman in 2019.
Maurer has totaled 550 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 97 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns during his Tennessee career.
He joined the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days” and discussed how student-athletes can benefit from their name, image and likeness.
“This is definitely a new era, and this is definitely still new to us,” Maurer said.
Maurer also discussed Tennessee’s fans and building his brand with supporters.
“It is really just being about building your brand the right way,” Maurer said. “I understand in the past that I made mistakes, but now I have learned that it’s just that one percent, and then there is that 99 percent that are just the good, true fans that love us no matter how we do or how we play.
“I think I have learned that in the past, and being able to build my brand off the good now is going to be really good for me, not only myself, but my teammates as well.”
Maurer came to Tennessee from West Port High School in Ocala, Florida. He was recruited by Josh Heupel at UCF.
Heupel was hired as UCF’s head coach on Dec. 5, 2017. He offered Maurer on Jan. 19, 2018.
“He offered me and I went out on a couple visits, and I was like this really could be home,” Maurer said of UCF and Heupel. “It was really early in my recruiting process at the time, and I was like this really could be home. The night I was actually thinking about committing to UCF, Coach Jeff Lebby, who is know at Ole Miss, called me and was like sorry — someone else just committed to us — we are still going to recruit you though. I remember just feeling heartbroken.
“Later on in the recruitment process, UCF opened back up, but Tennessee offered me and Ohio State. I was really considering the two and then Urban Meyer retired. I was like, OK, UCF is back in the race.”
Maurer mentioned he loves everything about Heupel and what he stands for.
The Tennessee quarterback explained why he did not commit to Heupel and UCF when an opportunity resurfaced with the Knights.
“I was really wanting to come to UCF,” Maurer continued. “I knew Heupel was a great coach and that he would not be at UCF by the time I graduated. Honestly, I chose Tennessee because of the fan base, the great tradition here, but really one of the main things that put it over the top was Coach (Jeremy) Pruitt was going into his second year when I was coming in. I figured he would be here for awhile.”
The entire show with Maurer can be listened to here or below. Maurer discusses majoring in journalism and electronic media, Tyson Helton in his recruitment and playing golf.
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