Brian Maurer discusses nearly committing to Josh Heupel at UCF, why he chose Tennessee
By Keith Farner
Published:
Brian Maurer has a longer history with Josh Heupel than many of his Tennessee teammates.
Maurer is from Ocala, Florida, and was recruited by Heupel when he coached at Central Florida. As Dan Harralson of Vols Wire reported, 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.”
Tennessee beat out UCF, and Maurer explained why.
“I was really wanting to come to UCF,” Maurer said. “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.”
Maurer enters his third year with the program and has played in 12 career games with four starts, all as a true freshman. He’s accounted for four touchdowns overall, and has completed 37-of-81 passes for 550 yards and two touchdowns.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
