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Tennessee opened the new college football season with a commanding win against Furman on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium. The 20th-ranked Vols got a dazzling debut from freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon in his first start and a dominant showing from a defense under new management after the hire of Jim Knowles and multiple new assistant coaches in the offseason. Tennessee overwhelmed its Football Championship Subdivision opponents, but it wasn’t an entirely clean day for Josh Heupel’s team and the coaching staff will see things to clean up. Brandon starred in his first college game with 294 yards of offense (226 passing, 68 rushing) and five touchdowns (three passing, two rushing), while Penn State transfer Xavier Gilliam led the way on defense with five tackles for loss and three sacks. The Vols failed to score on their second and third possessions before ripping off five touchdown drives in a row, but did have two turnovers leading to 10 Furman points and seven penalties for 60 yards. The GoVols247 Report Card evaluates Tennessee’s position-by-position and overall coaching performances in the win against Furman.