Tennessee breezed past Furman in the opener on Saturday, but it really didn’t go like many thought it would, myself included. The Volunteers, playing an FCS opponent while breaking in a true freshman quarterback, probably thought they were going to keep things on the ground and chew up yards pretty easily. That didn’t turn out to be the case early on.
Tennessee struggled to find any rhythm in the run game as Furman proved to be pretty tough on the Vols up front. DeSean Bishop was bottled up in that first quarter, forcing a couple of early Tennessee punts. The veteran offensive line, which played a number of different combinations during what was always going to be a little bit of an experimental day, just wasn’t on the same page to start.
One key reason why was veteran center Sam Pendleton missing from the lineup. Josh Heupel noted that he went through warm-ups but didn’t feel like he was 100 percent. With no reason to risk it, redshirt freshman Nic Moore got the start.
“New center playing,” Josh Heupel said on Monday. “Some of our issues, some things that we need to clean up, stem from communication. That’s all five of them. Ultimately, during the course of the season, you’re going to need more than just five. The guys got their grades today. There’s areas of improvement for all of them. We’ll see how we play it on Saturday night as we go through the week.”
Bishop ended up running for 97 yards on 14 carries, eventually getting his average up to nearly seven yards per carry. Javin Gordon ran for 47 yards on ten carries. Faizon Brandon provided a real spark, giving the Paladins something else to worry about.
Justin Baker made all the numbers look a lot better with a 73-yard touchdown run in the second half.
“A couple of things on the edge, tight ends,” Heupel said on the early struggles. “We just got to clean up some of their fundamentals. A couple of (the problems were) just communication on a different front than what we anticipated and don’t block it right. At the end of the day, it’s nothing major. It’s doing the little things. When you get ready to go on the road at night, the little things add up really quickly. Those are some of the small things that we’ve got to grow in to be ready to go play all the way that we need to Saturday night.”
By the end of the day, Tennessee had run for 329 yards, averaging right at 7.0 yards per carry. However, it was Brandon’s work through the air and scrambling that really got things rolling for the Tennessee offense. Against a more physically talented Georgia Tech front this week, not to mention playing on the road, the Volunteers will need a much faster start on the ground.
Pendleton is expected back this week, which should help iron out any communication issues.
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