That’ll do.
It took a little while, but the Tennessee Volunteers got things going in a big way on Saturday in their season opener against Furman. The Vols bowled over the Paladins 56-9 on a steamy day inside Neyland Stadium.
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Faizon Brandon got his Tennessee career started off on the right foot, as he went 13/17 passing for 226 yards with three touchdowns and ran 10 times for 68 yards and two more scores. DeSean Bishop led the backfield with 97 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown. Justin Baker added 89 more yards and a score on a 73-yard touchdown run. Mike Matthews had two long touchdown catches early in the third quarter, going for 132 yards on four catches to lead all pass catchers.
The game was a bit sluggish, particularly on the offensive end, as Tennessee’s offensive line struggled in the first quarter, particularly in run blocking. Tennessee had a turnover on downs, and they couldn’t get much to pop on the ground.
But Josh Heupel got creative on third and goal early in the second quarter. He called an option to the short side, and Brandon had a wide open lane to trot to the corner of the end zone for a 14-0 lead. After Bishop’s 1-yard run pushed the lead out to 21-0, Tennessee busted it open with 17 seconds left in the first half. Brandon took a draw and scampered 7 yards through the defense and a defender at the goal line for a 28-0 lead.
The Vols’ passing game wasn’t really clicking in the first half, but the play calling was very vanilla. But they made up for that quickly in the third quarter. Matthews was alone by himself on a complete bust, but still had a nifty over the shoulder grab in stride for a 55-yard touchdown. The next drive, he leapt and grabbed a pass deep down the field and shook his defender for a 57-yard score, and at 42-0, that was all she wrote for Brandon.
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George MacIntyre came in and threw a very well-placed ball to TK Keys for a 22-yard touchdown and a 49-3 lead. A fumbled snap later would kill another drive, but Tennessee would finish the scoring on Baker’s long, weaving touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
The Vols’ defense was stout. Tennessee’s defensive front and pass rush, a question mark coming in, was one of the best performing units of the game. Xavier Gilliam was unblockable. He had 6 tackles, 3 sacks, and 5 tackles for loss in a monster game. Tyree Weathersby had a sack on the game’s first play, Mariyon Dye added a sack, and Edwin Spillman had a sack on a blitz.
It was a tremendous day for Tennessee’s pass defense, who had just 43 passing yards for the game between two quarterbacks, which is absolutely ridiculous. The Paladins did have 178 rushing yards, with Isaiah Davis having 113 on 8 carries, so there’s certainly some room for growth there.
Next up: Georgia Tech on Saturday in Atlanta.
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