Tennessee started fast, finished strong and did enough in between for a 45-26 victory over Syracuse in their football opener Saturday afternoon in Atlanta.
It wasn’t a knockout and the combat was a bit closer than the score but the superior team won. Surprisingly, attendance was only 45,918.
The Vol offense was incredibly balanced, 247 yards passing, 246 rushing. Joey Aguilar, the new quarterback, threw for three touchdowns. He ran wisely and well. He did not throw an interception.
“He is who he was on the practice field, just very even keel and composed,” said Josh Heupel. “I thought he handled the operation extremely well.”
Joy, joy, Aguilar delivered a perfect home-run pass, something his predecessor had trouble doing. Joey linked up with slot receiver Braylon Staley for a 73-yard score.
Because of Aguilar’s poise and mobility in eluding pressure and because running back Star Thomas kept working to get open, they connected for a touchdown. Tight end Miles Kitselman caught the closing TD pass.
Thomas rushed for 92 yards. DeSean Bishop turned a screen pass into a big gain and rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown. Peyton Lewis ran for 38 and ran over a would-be defender for a TD.
Defensive tackle Nathan Robinson stripped the ball from Syracuse quarterback Steve Angeli, cornerback Colton Hood scooped up the fumble and returned it 22 yards for a touchdown. Max Gilbert kicked a field goal and six extra points.
Tennessee’s defense did not look like the defense of 2024. It twice failed to stop long Syracuse drives. That shade of orange ran 16 more plays than Tennessee and totaled 377 yards.
Heupel didn’t say so what, that his team grabbed a 17-0 first-quarter lead and never let go. He did say it was great to get a victory. He called it a good start with a lot of positives. The coach told the truth when he added “there are a lot of things that we’re going to have to clean up.”
Syracuse coach Fran Brown was gracious in defeat.
“I want to take my hat off to Tennessee. Their coaching staff did an amazing job of preparing their players. They fought really well. Just a classy football team.”
Syracuse fought, too. It reduced the deficit to 12 in the fourth quarter before the Vols slammed the door. Brown wasn’t interested in what might have been.
“To say there are moral victories and things of that nature, for me that would be a loser’s mentality, but I am very thankful that our players stuck together and continued to fight until the last play.”
Brown didn’t really like a question about how Heupel and Tennessee won.
“I think they were the better team. They beat us today. He was a better coach than I was. He had his team more prepared than I had our team, so therefore they’re 1-0 and we’re 0-1.”
The Vols overcame hardships. Highly regarded freshman tackle David Sanders was a late scratch because of a supposedly a minor shoulder injury suffered in practice. That caused all kinds of movement in the offensive line.
Guard Jesse Perry became a tackle. William Moe switched from left guard to right guard. Sham Umarov made the first start of his career – at left guard.
There were other injury problems. Defensive tackle Daevin Hobbs was out with a bad foot. Defensive tackle Jaxson Moi got hurt in the first quarter. Corner Rickey Gibson dropped out in the second quarter. Top linebacker Arion Carter missed considerable action.
Robinson, veteran reserve tackle, played the most of his career. Freshman defensive back Ty Redmond filled in well for Gibson. Linebacker Jaedon Harmon saw unexpected action.
Heupel said what he often says, next man up. His recent favorite line is “young guys don’t have time to be young.”
The coach talked about momentum plays, about Robinson applying the heat and Hood scooping and scoring and how that “changed the way the early part of the game was played. Started off the second half with a big turnover, too.”
Jalen McMurray leaped and tipped a pass and Jeremiah Telander made a diving interception.
“So, there were a lot of great things that showed defensively. There were some things that we gave up, too. Some things that, in our zone principles, we can match out better, third- and fourth-down conversions.
“One of the things that we need to get better at is just playing for 60 minutes. I felt like we dipped a little bit in the second half, and there’s a fine line in this game. You’ve got to be on the right side of that competitive edge, and you’ve got to be able to sustain it for 60 minutes.”
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com
