When Dylan Sampson took his second carry of the game in Neyland Stadium in front of over 100,000 fans in Knoxville, he swept left behind the offensive line. He had to bend his run around a blitzing Alabama defender before he turned up field, put his foot in the dirt to barrel toward the endzone. He had a few blockers in front of him, but right away, the play looked to be developing weirdly. Tight End Miles Kitselman was standing still about 8 yards downfield, even with a pair of Crimson defenders in front of him. Sampson ran past his stationary teammate, spun out of the tackle of the first defender, then got wrapped up by a second tackler inside the Tide 20-yard line, where the ball was ripped out of his hands, and recovered by the defense. In back-to-back weeks, Tennessee’s opening offensive drive, while promising to start, ended in a lost fumble. It was Sampson’s first fumble in his career at Tennessee.
Despite the offense being stuck in the mud for most of the first half, with the fumble being followed by a punt, two missed field goals, and a pair of interceptions before only getting one play (a sack) on the last drive of the half, Sampson did what he has done all year for the Volunteers; he scored. After punting on their first drive after halftime, the defense got Tennessee the ball back, with the UT drive starting inside their own 10-yard line. With only 35 rushing yards in the first half, Dylan got more than that when he broke a 36-yard run, carrying the team into Alabama territory. After a great run from quarterback Nico Iamaleava and a penalty against the Crimson Tide defense, one of 15 accepted against the visiting team, Sampson plunged into the endzone from 2 yards out to draw the game even at 7-7. Sampson would punch it in again on the next Tennessee drive to take a lead, with the junior running back finishing with over 130 yards rushing while helping propel the team to a 24-17 victory over Alabama, the program’s second over the Crimson Tide in three years.
Nico Iamaleava, after a rough start, and what looked at first to be a frightening lower back injury, settled in for a respectable night, finishing with under 200 yards passing and a single touchdown and interception. He also ran for 44 yards on 9 carries, including a nice 27-yard scamper which set up UT’s first touchdown of the contest. Senior wide receiver Bru McCoy led all the Volunteer pass catchers with 80 yards on 6 catches, and seemed to be the main guy to help spark the offense. Transfer wide receiver Chris Brazzell II scored on a diving touchdown reception in the 4th quarter which put Tennessee ahead for good, and Dont’e Thornton Jr reeled in a big 55-yard reception the play before Sampson’s second score.
But it was the defense who did the heavy lifting in the victory. With Alabama’s offense seeming to improve with each drive, they reached the Tennessee 3-yard line near the end of the first quarter. Crimson quarterback Jalen Milroe dropped back to pass on second down, and tossed a pass to the outside shoulder of his freshman phenom pass catcher, Ryan Williams, who was engaged in press coverage. But it was Tennessee defender Jermond McCoy, not Williams, who acrobatically pulled the ball out of the air with one hand, secured it in his own endzone, and ran beyond the midfield line before being tackled. Despite being targetted a dozen times in the first half, and catching a career high 8 passes in the game, Tennessee defenders did a great job containing Williams, holding him to only 73 yards.
At other points in the game, Senior defensive back Will Brooks made a touchdown saving tackle of Milroe, diving away from the Bama blocker he was engaged with to trip up the fleeing quarterback. The defense clamped down hard at the end of the half, forcing three straight incompletions, to prompt an attempt at a career long field goal from the Tide kicker, but it fell well short. James Pearce Jr, coming into the game with only a pair of sacks, fought through the game to earn 1.5 more sacks, including a massive pressure and a sack on 3rd and 10 with Tennessee nursing a 4-point lead with around 5 minutes left in the game. Next, it was pressure, coverage, and solid tackling which stymied a 4th down attempt by the Alabama offense, giving the ball back to Nico and company. But it was Will Brooks in the end who sealed the game after Tennessee failed twice to milk out the clock following Pearce’s big sack and the failed 4th down conversion. With Milroe under pressure, with both tackles being beat and pressure up the middle, he threw a pass over the middle, and Brooks dashed in front of receiver Germie Bernard to intercept the pass and seal the game.
The win is a statement for Head Coach Josh Heupel. He was notorious in his first few years with Tennessee for failing to win the tight games. His loss to Arkansas seemed to confirm that, but in back-to-back weeks, despite a struggling offense, he has coached his team to a toughed out one score wins. Those are the games his team consistently lost, but tonight, two years after a horse race 52-49 win where UT fans tore down the field goal posts, he stood on the field, victorious again, and called the game at Rocky Top “as good as it gets,” and credited the defense with keeping the team in the ball game.
Tennessee will take the next week off before inviting the Kentucky Wildcats to town.