Anticipation is high in Knoxville as Faizon Brandon is slated to become the first true freshman quarterback to start a season opener for Tennessee since Brent Schaeffer in 2004.
Brandon’s debut will come as the 20th-ranked Volunteers host 1-0 Furman on Saturday afternoon. The highly touted recruit from Greensboro, N.C., beat out sophomore George MacIntyre over the course of spring and fall practice.
Ahead of a potentially nervy first game in Neyland Stadium, Brandon says his focus is on “just going out there and trying to play my game.”
“I’m not trying to do anything spectacular, but just do everything I’ve been doing along the way and not let anything change when I get out there.”
The young quarterback can lean on the Volunteers’ star running back DeSean Bishop.
After rushing for 1,076 yards last season, Bishop was named to the All-Southeastern Conference third team in the preseason honors announced by the conference. Offensive linemen Wendell Moe Jr. and David Sanders Jr. joined Bishop on the All-SEC third team.
Tennessee is a perfect 5-0 in openers under head coach Josh Heupel, most recently defeating Syracuse 45-26 in the Aflac Kickoff Game in Atlanta, Ga., last August. The Volunteers went 8-5 in 2025, failing to match their College Football Playoff berth from the season before.
There’s a big change on the defensive side of the ball for Tennessee as well, as Jim Knowles will call his first game as defensive coordinator. Knowles, who won a national title in the same role at Ohio State in 2024, was at Penn State last season.
Even before playing a game this season, Heupel says Knowles’ multiple-front defense has helped the offense prepare for what’s ahead.
“As multiple as they are,” he said, “It gives you the ability to work through a lot of the things that you’re going to see throughout the course of the year.”
The Volunteers will be without linebacker Arion Carter this week as he serves a one-game suspension for receiving an improper benefit. Carter, who led the conference with 7.6 tackles per game a season ago, will be eligible to make his season debut in Tennessee’s Week 2 game at Georgia Tech.
Furman handled business in its opener against Anderson (S.C.) last Thursday, winning 20-3. The Paladins, who went 6-6 in 2025, are 61-43 one game into coach Clay Hendrix’s 10th season in charge.
“At Furman in all my years, when we’ve been an older football team, we’ve been better,” Hendrix said. “This season? We’re an older football team,” he added.
The Paladins won 10 games in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023, making the FCS quarterfinals in 2023. Hendrix mentioned the importance of “getting the quarterback play back to what it was” as they chase a return to that kind of success.
For that task, he has turned to an FBS veteran in Jake Garcia, who threw for 1,426 yards as ECU’s starter in 2024. Garcia, who also spent time at Miami, Missouri and Michigan, was 15-for-28 for 183 yards with an interception in the win against Anderson.