After making a minimal impact in Tennessee’s first game of the 2017 season, freshman Ty Chandler burst onto the scene in just his second collegiate game ever.
Chandler, a running back out of Montgomery Bell Academy in middle Tennessee, took the opening kickoff of the Tennessee-Indiana State game on Saturday 91 yards for a touchdown. That touchdown was his first ever score as a collegiate player. That would be Chandler’s only kick return in the game, and he would finish with four carries for 14 yards on offense as well.
His performance against Indiana State and that opening kickoff return for a touchdown was good enough to earn Chandler Freshman of the Week honors in the SEC.
Chandler’s kickoff return for a touchdown to start the game was the first time a Vol had returned the game’s opening kickoff for a score since 2015 hen Evan Berry ran the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown against Arkansas in Neyland Stadium. Chandler is also the first Tennessee true freshman to return a kickoff for a touchdown since 1999. Leonard Scott returned a kickoff 100 yards for a score against Georgia in his true freshman season that year.
