The Faizon Brandon era is off to a quick start in Knoxville.
The freshman signal caller went 13-of-17 for 226 yards and three touchdowns while adding 68 yards on 10 carries and two touchdowns as Tennessee captured a 56-9 opening-day victory over Furman.
“I thought he managed what we were doing, the purpose of what we were trying to accomplish, really well,” Volunteer Head Coach Josh Heupel said of Brandon. “The communication part was really solid, and decision-making was really good. Extended and made some plays with his feet, took care of the football, and there were a lot of positives from him. For a young player, he managed and stayed within himself extremely well, which is the expectation as a whole.”
The Volunteers rolled to 638 yards of total offense in the contest and held a 28-0 lead at the half.
“Good start today,” Heupel said. “There’s a bunch that we are going to need to clean up here in all three phases of the game, but overall pleased with the performance. Defensively, we played extremely well. We don’t turn it over; it’s probably a shutout. Those guys have grown, worked, and competed extremely hard to go play and start the season that way.”
“Proud of the effort there from our staff and our players. Offensively, the penalties early in the football game slowed a couple of drives down. After that, I thought we executed at a high level. Quarterbacks played smart and efficient today. All of them did. So, good start. A lot to learn from and move on to a big one next week.”
It was the second-hottest kickoff ever in Neyland Stadium, with a temperature of 90 degrees.
DeSean Bishop had 97 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown, while Justin Baker added 89 yards and a score on three carries. Javin Gordon had 10 carries for 52 yards.
Mike Matthews led the receiving corps as he had two touchdowns on four catches and finished with 132 receiving yards.
TK Keys and Ethan David also added receiving touchdowns.
The Volunteer defense was sparked by a big day by Xavier Gilliam as he recorded three sacks in the game.
“Yeah, one of the strong leaders inside the room,” Heupel said of Gilliam. “It was awesome to see the team’s reaction; you know, we talked about his performance-three sacks today. A model of consistency in how he works, prepares, competes. Same dude every day, and no surprise that he played really well today.”
The Volunteers now turn attention to the first road game of the season with a trip to Georgia Tech in a nonconference contest.
Photos/Story by Matt Laws/Carter County Sports
