Saturday afternoon in Neyland Stadium, the No. 20 Tennessee Volunteers hosted the Furman Paladins and rolled to a week one win. Freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon had a fantastic day in his debut. He finished the day 13-of-17 for 226 yards and three touchdowns through the air with a rating of 246.4. On the ground, he rushed 10 times for 68 yards and two touchdowns. His five touchdowns tied him for the Tennessee freshman single game touchdown record.
Tennessee started on defense first after deferring to the second half. Tyree Weathersby began the game with an eight-yard sack of Jake Garcia. That set the day’s tone for the Vols defense.
Brandon took the ball in his first drive and began with back-to-back completed passes to Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews for a total of 20 yards. On third and medium, Brandon completed a pass for the first down before taking a designed quarterback run for 12 yards. Brandon followed with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Davis to finish his first career drive.
After Tennessee’s defense stopped Furman on downs, Brandon and the offense took over with favorable field position. But after starting five yards in the hole due to a false start, the Vols turned it over on downs on a fourth and 3. Brandon did complete 2-of-3 passes on the drive for 10 yards.
Xavier Gilliam threw a wrench in Furman’s next drive with back-to-back sacks of Garcia. The Paladins got into Tennessee territory before that, as Garcia ran for 17 yards up the middle on a 3rd and 4.
After Furman got the ball back for the last drive of the first quarter that crossed over into the second, Edwin Spillman shut the Paladins down with a seven-yard sack to force a punt.
Tennessee only scored seven points in the opening quarter. Then, with a short field, Tennessee used the run game to score its next seven. Javin Gordon bounced for a 24-yard run. A couple of plays later, Brandon took a quarterback run for eight yards.
Gordon then got to the one-yard line with an eight-yard run before losing five yards on back-to-back plays. Furman got some penetration for a couple of plays. Then, Brandon used his legs on an option to the left for a six-yard touchdown run.
Furman had to use deception to try to soften up this Tennessee defense. They used an end-around where Jerrod Williams Jr. ran for 20, and another 15 yards were added on for a late hit out of bounds. That put the Paladins into Vols territory before they turned it over on downs again.
Tennessee went run-heavy to put the Vols up 21-0. DeSean Bishop finished up an 11-play drive to score from a yard out. The Vols ran the ball on eight of the 11 plays. Brandon, Bishop and Duane Morris carried the load.
Its defense kept the Paladins under wraps, and in the first half only allowed 32 yards for just 2.7 yards per play. That let Tennessee methodically run the offense. The Vols stopped Furman with 1:43 left in the first half. That put Brandon in a two-minute offense, and the Vols went right back to the run game. Bishop opened the drive with back-to-back runs for a total of 32 yards. He would finish the game with 14 carries for 97 yards with a touchdown.
Then, Brandon got out for a 22-yard run and would run three more times on the drive, ending it with a seven-yard touchdown. That sent Tennessee to the half up 28-0.
The Vols began the second half with the ball and quickly took a 35-0 lead. After Gordon opened the drive with a run and a reception, Brandon found Mike Matthews wide open down the seam for a 55-yard touchdown. Then, on the next drive Brandon struck again. He hit Matthews for a 57-yard score to put Tennessee up 42-0. Matthews went on to finish the day with 132 yards and two touchdowns on four receptions.
After the Vols’ next drive ended in a fumble, the Paladins finally got on the board by a Nathan Chapman 50-yard field goal to make it 42-3. Before that, the Vols defense kept Furman locked down with the short field. Furman made it to the 26-yard line before Gilliam recorded his third sack of the game. Gilliam lived in the backfield all afternoon.
George MacIntyre came into the game on the next drive and went directly to the air. He completed 4-for-5 for 51 yards and a touchdown to TK Keys to begin his day. Keys caught two of the four balls on that drive for a total of 29 yards.
The Vols lost their second fumble of the game, just over a minute into the fourth quarter. That allowed Furman to take over at the Vols 30 and score. Isaiah Davis ran it in from 23 yards to give Furman its first touchdown. They missed the extra point, to make it 49-9.
Tennessee wasn’t done with the Paladins. Justin Baker added a 73-yard touchdown with 11:55 to go in the fourth, and that wrapped up the scoring for the day. Tennessee accumulated 638 yards of total offense, with 329 rushing yards and 309 passing yards. It was a balanced day for the Vols.
On the defensive side, the Vols recorded 12 tackles for loss and six sacks. Furman gained a net of 221 yards. 119 of those yards came in the fourth quarter.
Tennessee will visit Georgia Tech on Saturday, Sept. 12. Game time is set for 7 p.m. EDT on ESPN.
