<body><div>When you live and breathe something for 365 days per year and are guaranteed no more than 12 opportunities to watch it live, it's tough to place anything in those dozen days in the proper perspective, at least in the moment.When a team like (ranked No. 15 in the preseason FBS poll) plays a team like <a href="https://247sports.com/college/chattanooga/">Chattanooga</a> (No. 8 in the preseason FCS poll) at any point in the season, but especially to open the season, it's tough to place anything about the result in its proper perceptive.Of course we know more about the Vols after their 69-3 win over Chattanooga than we knew about them heading into a scorching Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium. Of course we do. There are so still many more things we don't know, but we have time to learn them.Teams can play only the teams assigned to them on a given day. Tennessee didn't play NC State on a neutral site. It didn't play at <a href="https://247sports.com/college/oklahoma/">Oklahoma</a> or Georgia. It didn't host <a href="https://247sports.com/college/alabama/">Alabama</a> or Florida. It hosted system-sibling Chattanooga — a good FCS team, but not one of the Dakota or <a href="https://247sports.com/college/montana/">Montana</a> programs.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2j175u_0vH2kyV200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2j175u_0vH2kyV200" width="240" height="320" ><figcaption>Tennessee junior running back Dylan Sampson (Photo: Jacob Klupferman, Getty)</figcaption></figure>It was a game Tennessee should have won with ease. It was a game Tennessee won with ease. If that's the strict lens through which you the situation, fair enough. You might even be right. Perhaps the talent gap between the Vols and Mocs was so vast that Saturday was simply a scrimmage with 101,195 people.Surely things aren't quite that simple, though. Surely.We saw what we saw Saturday. Perhaps most importantly, we saw again why so many people for so long have been so enamored with <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/nico-iamaleava-46101236/">Nico Iamaleava</a>. A 35-0 win over <a href="https://247sports.com/college/iowa/">Iowa</a> in the Citrus Bowl on New Year's Day was the first start of Iamaleava's college career. Saturday was his second start, and his first in Knoxville. He's a redshirt freshman. He's 19 years old. But if you can't see why he's been labeled as potentially a generational talent, have you really watched him? Have you seen how athletic he is? Have you seen how gracefully he moves for a 6-foot-6 quarterback? Have you seen the size and accuracy of his arm? Have you seen the off-platform throws he can make? Have you seen what Chattanooga coach <a href="https://247sports.com/Coach/rusty-wright-3864/">Rusty Wright</a> said about him after Saturday's shellacking?"He's the real deal," Wright said. "I think the more football that young man plays, I think he fits really well in the scheme of what they want to do. I think he's what they've been looking for in that spot. He has all the tools."Wright played football at the FCS level, and he's never been a head coach at the FBS level, but let's look at some of the quarterbacks Chattanooga has faced during Wright's time as a defensive assistant or head coach. <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/jalen-hurts-37059/">Jalen Hurts</a>. <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/will-levis-92779/">Will Levis</a>. <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/AJ-McCarron-10710">AJ McCarron</a>. <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/joshua-dobbs-16152/">Joshua Dobbs</a>. <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/jalen-milroe-46050317/">Jalen Milroe</a>. <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/nathan-peterman-1734/">Nathan Peterman</a>. All six have started games in the NFL. And those are just the quarterbacks Wright has faced during his time with the Mocs. He's coached other places, too. He knows ball. His thoughts matter.For the second time in three years, a <a href="https://247sports.com/Coach/josh-heupel-173/">Josh Heupel</a> Tennessee offense looks like it'll be led by a dynamic, dual-threat quarterback surrounded by next-level talent at receiver, running back, tight end and different parts of the offensive line. Some of the throws Iamaleava made Saturday would have been impressive against air. Every program in America wanted him for a reason. He's a special talent. And he's in Tennessee orange. And he completed 22 of 28 passes for 314 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first career start in Knoxville. And he did all of that in one half. He completed his first 10 passes, and most of them weren't gimmes.Look at the weapons around Iamaleava, too. Who wouldn't be excited about that group of playmakers? Who wouldn't be at least cautiously optimistic about that offensive line, assuming it can stay reasonably healthy?And that's just the offense.Tennessee's defensive line has third-teamers who would have started at several points in the past dozen years for this program. This writer is convinced of that. It has experience. It has size. It has athleticism. It has depth for days. It has young men who will make good money for years in this game.Are there concerns about this team? Sure, there are. And those concerns weren't going to disappear if Tennessee had won by 100 points — which, for what's worth, Tennessee absolutely could have done if Tennessee desired.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2PNbmi_0vH2kyV200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2PNbmi_0vH2kyV200" width="240" height="320" ><figcaption>Tennessee senior D-lineman Elijah Simmons (Photo: Bryan Lynn, Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>These eyes still see potential problems on the back end of the defense. This Tennessee defensive line is fantastic, and it will own the line of scrimmage in most games, but it won't own it quite as comfortably as it did against Chattanooga. Duh. Tennessee reset the line of scrimmage on virtually every snap against the Mocs. On more than one occasion, senior tugboat <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Elijah-Simmons-46051817">Elijah Simmons</a> cratered the interior line of scrimmage by himself. There's no reason some version of that can't happen in most games this season. But it won't happen to that degree in most games. If you can stand up to the Vols' front six, there might be some places yo can hurt that bunch. Or then again, maybe not. The corners are young but talented, and there's potential in the safety group — not as much upside as there is at corner, but some upside.All these Vols could do Saturday was play Chattanooga, and they aced that test. They showed up and showed out … or whatever it is the kids say these days. They played the blitzkrieg brand of ball we've seen from Heupel teams at Tennessee and elsewhere. They forced the Mocs — who are, again, a well-coached football team — to call two timeouts in the opening minutes in a futile attempt to calm the chaos.Heupel's teams at their best seize the initiative and make opponents uncomfortable. Their offense plays at a pace that can't be authentically simulated in practice, and their defense is aggressive enough to make (but also allow) big plays. They can't be fun to face. Even if you beat them, they take you outside your comfort zone. This team looks capable of doing that. We suspected it would, and nothing in the opener changed that thought.This looked easier than most expected. It was supposed to look easy. It wasn't supposed to look quite this easy. And it looked easy despite junior edge defender <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/james-pearce-jr-46114817/">James Pearce Jr.</a> — a contender to go 1-1 in the NFL Draft — barely being asked to break a sweat, and despite a vast majority of the first-team offense and defense watching the second half from the sideline.It's OK to be cautious about this team. It's also OK to be excited. There are plenty of reasons to be excited. Not just Iamaleava. But definitely Iamaleava, too. And he's just gotten started.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Rucker: This was supposed to look easy. It wasn't supposed to look this easy.

When you live and breathe something for 365 days per year and are guaranteed no more than 12 opportunities to watch it live, it's tough to place anything in those dozen days in the proper perspective, at least in the moment. When a team like. (ranked No. 15 in the...

Rucker: This was supposed to look easy. It wasn't supposed to look this easy.

Comments / 0