The most interesting call Tennessee makes Saturday may be the protection pointed toward Joshua Stoneking.
Furmanās star defensive end led the FCS with 14.5 sacks and 23 tackles for loss in 2025, earning consensus first-team All-America recognition and the FCS ADA National Defensive Player of the Year award. He accounted for 56% of the Paladinsā sacks. In an opener that Tennessee is 99.8% likely to win, Stoneking supplies a narrow but legitimate test. Can the Vols keep their young quarterback calm when one defender is capable of wrecking a series?
Kickoff against Furman is Saturday, Sept. 5, at 3:30 p.m. ET on SECN+.
What to hope for against Furman
Root for Tennessee, obviously, but invest more attention in composure than margin. As of the Aug. 15 scrimmage, sophomore George MacIntyre and true freshman Faizon Brandon were still rotating. Whoever plays will have proven help. DeSean Bishop returns after rushing for 1,076 yards and 16 touchdowns, while Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews each return from 800-yard receiving seasons.
That supporting cast should keep Tennessee from asking its quarterback to solve everything immediately. The useful signs are simpler. Recognize Stoneking, get the protection set, take the available throw and avoid turning pressure into panic. One lost rep against an elite FCS rusher is information; repeated confusion would be the concern.
Furman also arrives with a small preparation advantage. The Paladins open against Anderson on Aug. 27, nine days before visiting Knoxville, so they will bring live-game experience into Tennesseeās debut. That does not erase the enormous talent gap. It merely makes early sharpness a little more revealing.
Then shift your attention across the ball. Jim Knowles is installing the defense from a clean slate, with four former Penn State defenders already familiar with his system helping bridge the transition. This is a communication watch. Watch alignment, checks and whether the unit looks as though all 11 players heard the same call.
The urgency increased during camp. Safety Edrees Farooq and linebacker Jaedon Harmon suffered season-ending right-knee injuries, reducing the defenseās depth before its first public snap. Hope for quiet football here with few frantic gestures before the snap, no uncovered receivers and no obvious busts that Furman fails to punish only because of the mismatch.
A comfortable score is expected. The satisfying version of Saturday is a quarterback who never looks hurried by Stoneking and a new defense that sounds organized from the back end forward.
The one other result worth tracking
Colorado at Georgia Tech: root for Georgia Tech
Thursday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Georgia Tech has a 78% chance to win, and that is the helpful outcome by 1.5 percentage points for Tennesseeās playoff probability. The model gives the Vols a 17.6% playoff chance if Georgia Tech wins and 16.1% if Colorado wins; those are alternative outcome branches, not stages of one forecast.
The mechanism is future-opponent strength, not SEC standings. Tennessee visits Georgia Tech in Week 2, so a Yellow Jackets win makes that game a more valuable line on the Volsā rĆ©sumĆ©. This is mild Thursday-night interest, not a result Tennessee needs. Root for Tech, enjoy the advance scouting and save the real emotional investment for Saturday.
See every modeled result in the interactive Tennessee guide, or read how the probabilities and impacts are calculated in the methodology.