It is the first loaded Saturday of college football, with games taking place across the country. With kickoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET, the Furman Paladins will challenge the Tennessee Volunteers as part of the loaded slate.
Looking at the odds, Tennessee enters as monstrous 47.5-point favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook, with the game total set at 66.5 points.
This article previews both teams and offers a pick for the Week 1 matchup.
Furman vs. Tennessee Preview
Furman Paladins
The Furman Paladins kicked off their season with a 20-3 victory over the DII Anderson University (SC) Trojans. This matchup was held scoreless until Furman got on the board with a field goal with 7:10 remaining in the second quarter, and the floodgates opened a bit from there. The Paladins outgained their opponents 451-160 in the matchup, including recording a 268-6 advantage in total rushing yards. But this week will be a major wake-up call in terms of the caliber of talent of the opponent, and there are not a ton of major takeaways from the season opener.
On the wider scale of their outlook, Furman enters this season looking to build off a 6-6 season last year. Head Coach Clay Hendrix remains at the helm and has led the Paladins since 2017. He also suited up for the program as a player before his coaching days began. Quarterback Jake Garcia will get his second start for the program, after throwing for 183 yards and adding 51 on the ground in the season-opener. Garcia has been a familiar face in college football, after spending two years and suiting up for nine games at Miami, and making stops at Missouri, East Carolina, and Michigan since. It was an encouraging opening performance overall, but expect this to be a caliber of defense he has not faced in years.
Dartmouth transfer Daniel Haughton established himself as the top pass-catching option, pulling in five receptions for 87 yards in Week 0. Sophomore running back C.J. Nettles rushed for 99 yards, while Ben Croasdale added a pair of scores on the ground. Safety Eli Lipscomb is the most notable defensive name, and he tallied six tackles, three of which were for a loss, and a sack against Anderson while suiting up at the safety spot.
Tennessee Volunteers
It was a relatively underwhelming season last year by the sky-high standard of the Tennessee Volunteers. They finished with an 8-5 record, peaking at 11th place in the AP Rankings, and went 4-4 in conference play. They closed the year by losing the Music City Bowl in a 30-28 thriller at the hands of Illinois. Josh Heupel remains in place as head coach, entering his sixth season with the program.
Faizon Brandon will be making his first career start at quarterback as a 5-star true freshman for the Volunteers. He beat out George MacIntyre for the starting job, and this will be the first look at him in this Tennessee offense. Standing 6-foot-3 with a 225-pound frame, expectations are high for him this season. Even while MacIntyre lost out on the starting role, this is a matchup in which he is still expected to see plenty of opportunity due to the projected incoming blowout. These will be more than throwaway reps, as one injury can swing the season and MacIntyre was firmly in the quarterback competition leading into the year. DeSean Bishop is also expected to do plenty of damage on the ground and serve as a focal point of the offensive attack as he looks to build off his 1,000+ rushing yards last year. One other offensive storyline will be the wide receiver battle. Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews are fairly locked in as the top two options, but Radarious Jackson, TK Keys, and Travis Smith have each made their case behind them. Expect each to see chances in this season opener.
Defensively, there have been plenty of changes for Tennessee. Jim Knowles will make his debut calling plays after an ugly defensive performance by the program last year. Plenty of new faces will be suiting up for the Volunteers, headlined by Penn State transfer Xavier Gilliam at NT. Tennessee’s best defensive player, Arion Carter, will miss this matchup as he serves an NCAA suspension for taking a $427 flight from an agent before removing his name from the NFL Draft. This feels like a laughable consequence compared to all that is going on in college football, but this is not a matchup that Carter’s presence should be missed.
Furman vs. Tennessee Pick
The gap in talent between these two teams is monstrous, beyond what even the 47.5-point spread indicates. Furman was far from convincing in their season opener against a DII opponent, and this matchup will get ugly quickly. The Paladins squeezed by in a 17-point victory against a team that was only able to generate six rushing yards.
Expect the biggest matchup advantage to be at the line of scrimmage, with both sides favoring Tennessee in a major way. Count on the Volunteers getting a great jump off the snap, solidifying holes, and creating big play opportunities for DeSean Bishop throughout. Faizon Brandon will be playing to solidify his place as the clear starter moving forward, and the biggest goal for Tennessee will be to escape this matchup fully healthy with a comfortable victory under their belt.
However, I am comfortable laying such a high spread figure given the importance of these snaps for backup quarterback George MacIntyre. Don’t expect him to accept his role of holding the clipboard on the sideline easily, and strong results could open up the quarterback conversation again if Brandon is to struggle. A similar sentiment is true across the roster, with the depth pieces on this Tennessee roster each having a lengthy list of college programs that they would be playing a larger role on.
Expect the play call to be vanilla and for this to be an opening matchup in which plenty of the backups see extended chances. But Tennessee holds a massive advantage in both the X’s and O’s and the Jimmy and Joes. Expect the high profile names on the Volunteers’ roster to continue putting up points and making this game completely unreachable in a matchup that will have a chance to be the biggest blowout of the weekend. This is an opportunity for a statement win to get the season off on the right tack and count on Tennessee taking full advantage.
