Photo: Tennessee Athletics
Welcome to the weekly series. Tennessee football is back. We are all better for it.
This is the first Game of Inches piece. Each week we lock in on the one thing that will tell us the most about the Vols. Thursday is The Other Sideline. Friday is I’m Calling It. Same place every week.
I am not going to sit here with a straight face and act like Furman is going to knock Tennessee off. They look like an average FCS team. That does not mean Saturday is useless. This game can still tell you a lot about the year.
The one thing this week is Faizon Brandon.
Does he look in control of this offense before the snap? Does he take the check downs and the easy yards? Does he put the ball in harm’s way? Can he hit a couple deep shots? Most of all, does he look like the freshman we have been hearing about all offseason?
He does not have to be perfect. I do not expect him to be. He does have to look like he belongs and like this team is his.
If he comes out like Joe Milton did in 2021, overthrowing guys by 10 yards and not seeing the field, that is a clue. That kind of thing does not get cleaned up overnight. We have seen it before. If he is hesitant with the RPO game against a team like Furman, you can turn the first half of the season expectations down a notch. Whatever keeps showing up in game one is probably going to stick around for a while. That is why it matters that we do not see the same mistake over and over against an inferior team. He can mess up. He just cannot keep making the same one.
Now the other side. If he looks calm and in command, that does not mean he is an automatic star. It means the potential is there for a big year from him and from this team. By halftime we should have a pretty good idea whether this is going to be a tough first two months or whether Brandon is serviceable enough to keep the thing moving.
A rough game against Furman and still chasing the big season goals is a long shot. That is why you key in on him Saturday. Leave the stadium hoping you saw a quarterback who was in command against a team he should handle. Then you can say Tennessee has a guy back there who can win a bunch of games if he plays to his potential.
College football is week to week. No doubt. But if you watch close, game one usually gives you the baseline on a new quarterback. It may look a little better or a little worse as the year goes. This is still where it starts.
Furman is not the measuring stick. Brandon is. If he looks like the offense belongs to him, the rest of this season gets a lot more interesting.
It’s football time in Tennessee. Here’s to Brandon and the rest of the boys starting this thing off right.