Furman Faces Tennessee for The First Time Since World War II
Furman (1 -0) at No. 20 Tennessee (0-0)
Date: Sept. 5,
2026
Location:
Neyland
Stadium/Knoxville, TN
Time: 3:36 EST
How To Watch: SEC NETWORK+
Furman
Head Coach: Clay Hendrix (61-43/10th Yr at Furman)
Tennessee Head
Coach: Josh Heupel (45-20/6th Yr. at Tennessee/73-28 in 9th
Yr overall)
Series: This
will mark the third all-time meeting between the two programs, with Tennessee having won the previous two matchups in 1941 (W, 32-6) and '42 (W, 52-7)
Players To Watch For Furman: QB Jake Garcia (Offense)/DE Joshua Stoneking (Defense)
Players to Watch For Tennessee: RB De'Sean Bishop (Offense)/CB Ty Redmond (Defense)
Previewing the Matchup:
The Furman Football team returns to action Saturday
afternoon and will take on Tennessee in the first matchup between the two since
1942. Furman got off to a 1-0 start to the season with a 20-3 win over NCAA
Division II foe Anderson in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Tennessee enters the 2026 season ranked No. 20 in
the Associated Press to start the season, and the Vols are coming off an 8-5
season a year ago, dropping the Music City Bowl, 30-28, to Big Ten member Illinois
in what was one of the best bowl games of the bowl season.
This is the start of a brutal stretch for Furman, which begins Saturday against Tennessee, which is followed by three-straight ranked FCS teams in the current poll, with on No.15/19 Mercer on the road in the conference opener and then followed by a visit from No. 21/22 South Carolina State, which is followed by trip to No. 23/RV Richmond to end up the month of September.
The
opening game in October will see Furman host its first Southern Conference foe,
in RV/RV Wofford, who claimed a 42-14 win over The Citadel and has won its last three
games against the Paladins. The stretch closes on Oct. 10 with a trip to the
highest ranked SoCon team, as the Paladins face off against current No. 12/13 Tennessee Tech.
Last season, the Paladins played just one ranked team on the entire schedule, with the only ranked foe on the entire schedule having been No. 13 Mercer. Needless to say this is part of a brutal stretch to open the season for the Paladins.
There are few reprieves on the 2026 schedule,
and it’s not all that unsimilar to the 2022 team, which came into the season
with high expectations looking for a return to the postseason for the first
time in three seasons, as the Paladins faced off against five ranked teams
during that season, including FBS AP No. 5 Clemson.
The Paladins have posted a 6-35-1 record against FBS
programs, having faced Tennessee twice in school history, losing both. The
Paladins dropped what was a 52-7 contest to Tennessee back in 1942, and a year
earlier, it was the Vols that also claimed the first meeting between the two a year
earlier, posting what was a 32-6 win by the Vols in 1941. General Robert
Neyland would have been the coach during both of those seasons, however, he was
busy serving our great country in World War II.
Furman’s 20-3 win over Anderson in the season opener
was defined by its play on the defensive side of the football, as the Paladins
limited the NCAA Division II Trojans to just 160 yards of total offense, and a
total of just six rushing yards for the entire contest. The Paladins notched
seven tackles-for-loss and a pair of sacks in the season-opening win over the
Trojans last Thursday night.
Furman’s defense is led by none other than Joshua
Stoneking, who enters the season as one of the frontrunners for the Buck
Buchanan Award, which is given annually to the top defensive player in FCS football,
as the talented defensive end finished the 2025 season with 79 tackles, 23
tackles for loss and 14.5 sacks, with his tackles-for-loss and sacks total
leading all of FCS football last fall. In the season-opener against Anderson,
Stoneking found himself battling plenty of double teams and was held to two
tackles, one tackle-for-loss and a quarterback hurry.
Stoneking isn’t a one-man show on the defensive side
of the football, however, as the Paladins figure to be one of the top defenses
in SoCon and the FCS this fall. Teaming with Stoneking as his partner in crime
in getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks is ‘Bandit’ outside linebacker/edge
Eli Lipscomb. Lipscomb was a Freshman All-America selection last season, and
with so much focus and attention on Stoneking in the season opener, it opened
things up a bit for Lipscomb, who finished the season opener with six tackles,
three tackles-for-loss, one sack, two quarterback hurries and a fumble
recovery.
The Paladins platoon guys along the defensive front,
especially in at defensive tackle and nose guard. Demetrius Baldwin and
Garrison Butler are interchangeable at defensive tackle, while Caldwell Bussey and
Ty Kauserud will do the same at nose tackle. Baldwin was a SoCon All-Freshman pick
last season, while Bussey turned in what was an outstanding performance in the
season-opening win over the Trojans, as he finished with one of Furman’s two
sacks in the game and was credited with a pass breakup.
Helping form a solid nucleus for that Furman defense
are linebackers Ryan Earl and Caleb Ellison, while Raleigh Herbert is one of
the more athletic players on the defensive side of the ball having posted a
48-yard INT return in a conference win at Samford last season. Herbert tied for
the team lead in tackles in the season opener, as he joined Lipscomb atop the
tackles chart with six stops against Anderson.
The biggest question mark on the defensive side of
the ball is at cornerback where the Paladins were young last season and gave up
some chunk plays towards the latter portions of the season on the perimeter.
The Paladins really only surrendered one in the season opener against Anderson,
which led Anderson’s only points of the night. The Paladins are solid at all
three safety spots, highlighted by veterans AK Burrell and all-league selection
Billy Lewis, while true freshman Braylin Peebles won the starting job in fall
camp.
On offense, Furman churned out 268 yards on the
ground in the season opener, led by a comprehensive effort on the ground, as CJ
Nettles, CJ Stokes, Ben Croasdale and quarterback Jake Garcia to account for
Furman’s top three rushing totals in its week zero win. Croasdale scored both
of Furman’s touchdowns against Anderson and finished with 67 yards on 11
attempts. Nettles led the Furman ground attack with 10 rushes for 99 yards,
which was highlighted by a 47-yard run to set up a Paladin score in the second
quarter of the win.
One of the big question marks coming into the season
was the offensive line, as the Paladins have three new starters along the unit
coming into the season, but its veterans Chris Luna at center and Eli Brasher at
left tackle that highlight the unit.
Finally, there is a lot of optimism surrounding an
expected offensive improvement this fall due to the addition of 5th
year senior quarterback Jake Garcia, who has spent time at Miami, Missouri, East
Carolina and Michigan prior to his arrival at Furman. He finished his opener
with modest passing totals, as he played essentially his first game in two
years, finishing his debut as a Paladin by connecting on 15-of-28 passes for
183 yards with one INT. He also rushed for 51 yards on nine attempts against
the Trojans.
Furman was hit hard by the transfer portal at wide
receiver, but added some nice pieces to the unit, in Daniel Haughton from Dartmouth
and Luke Shields from Tennessee Tech, with Ethan Harris and tight end Jackson
Pryor being among the veteran leaders that represent reliable options that have
returned from last season. Haughton led the Paladins in the opener against the
Trojans with five catches for 87 yards.
The Vols enter the season with high expectations, which has been re-ignited under sixth-year head coach Josh Heupel. The former Oklahoma signal-caller has become Knoxville’s favorite son raised by another program, as he’s really embraced the fanbase and really become one of the Big Orange Nation during his time as the head coach of the Vols.
A lot of that has to do
with his transparency as a head coach, as well as not being scared to show the
human side of the job rather than how most coaches do at large programs, which
is compartmentalize coaching and real life situations as two different things. Part
of why Tennessee has had so much success is that family feel that Tennessee has
lacked really since Phil Fulmer was at the helm of the program throughout the
1990s and early 2000s.
That said, it’s been a task to get Tennessee to get
back to where it wants to be as a consistent national title contender, and that’s
still a work in progress, however, there’s no doubt things are different under
Heupel’s leadership, as he enters his sixth season at the helm.
Offensively, the Vols will look to All-SEC running
back DeSean Bishop, who is coming off a campaign that saw him rush for 1,076
yards and 16 TDs on 182 rush attempts (5.9 YPC) last season. The big news to
come out of fall camp for Tennessee is the Vols would be starting a freshman
under center this season, with Greensboro, N.C., native Faizon Brandon winning
the starting job in the preseason. Brandon was a star at Grimsley HS, as the five-star
quarterback helped guide his program to an astounding 35-1 record in his three
years as a starter. It will mark the fifth-straight season the Vols have started
a season with a new quarterback, and all have been solid.
The strength of the Tennessee offense, however, is
its offensive line, which is highlighted by offensive guard Wendell Moe Jr., center
Sam Pendleton and offensive tackle David Sanders Jr. Wideout Braylon Staley is
a Biletnikoff Award candidate, as he is part of the preseason ‘Watch List’ and
is coming off a sophomore season, which saw him haul in 68 passes for 837 yards
and six scores.
Tennessee’s defense will be installing a new scheme
under new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, as he comes aboard following spending
the past four seasons in the Big Ten coaching defenses at both Penn State and
Ohio State (2022-24). Part of the reason for change at the top defensive spot
is a unit that surrendered nearly 400 YPG (397.2 YPG) last season to rank 91st
in the FBS in total defense last fall.
This game is what it is for most SoCon teams these days. ETSU and Chattanooga faced the Vols in each of the previous two campaigns, with the Bucs taking a 77-17 loss last season in Neyland Stadium, while Chattanooga dropped a 69-3 contest two years ago.
It’s probably going to be a similar type of afternoon for Furman as it was for ETSU and UTC, as the Paladins will play before a sellout crowd of better than 102,000 fans at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, but maybe it won’t be as bad as the 76-0 loss the Paladins suffered vs. Ole Miss two years ago to open the season.
Even if it is, this is a
better football team that Furman has than two years ago, and the result of this
game and the loss margin matter very little in a season in which Furman expects
to be among the title contenders in the SoCon.
The expected crowd of better than 102,000 fans will mark the largest crowd it has ever played in front of in its previous 120 seasons of football. The previous largest crowd to see a Furman football game, came back in 2013 at LSU, as the Paladins played before a crowd of 92,554 on Oct. 26, 2013.
FINAL PREDICTION: TENNESSEE 57,
FURMAN 10
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