The last time Josh Heupel’s team met a Scotty Walden coached team was the second week of the 2023 season. The Vols were expected to steamroll the visiting Austin Peay squad, the 13th ranked team in the FCS division. But it was the Governors who scored first, and UT’s Joe Milton III was scattershot through his first few drives. Once he finally started hitting his passes, mostly short, high percentage wide receiver screens, Tennessee was able to put up some points. But the visitors were still able to claw their way back to a lead in the second quarter.
Eventually, the 2023 Volunteers got enough figured out to walk away with a 30-13 home win, but coach Heupel said they needed to figure things out to “play with a sense of urgency” and “make some strides.” The creativity on offense and the aggressiveness on defense of the Governors nearly brought about an upset. Walden had used his coaching prowess to improve Austin Peay’s program every year, and UTEP was hoping for a similar, at worst, or better result from their football team. They came to Knoxville with high hopes for a program with only 2 wins on the season.
With shades of 2023, it was a bit of hit and miss from the Tennessee Volunteers to start the game against the UTEP Miners. After trading punts, the Miners gained 12 yards on a first down run, then got a big gain off a double pass screen play, punching into UT territory. The defense clamped down from there, and the offense eventually found traction with a 56-0 win. The win made history as well, with Tennessee being the first SEC team to score 50 or more points while holding their opponent to 10 or fewer points four separate occasions in the same season.
The defense was the star of the show, despite the 50-point outburst. Jermod McCoy continued a good season with another interception, his third on the year. He has been UT’s stingiest defender in the secondary, with 11 pass breakups on the season as well, a promising sign from their sophomore star. After Tennessee finally got on the board in the second quarter, Rickey Gibson III ended UTEP’s following drive by standing up the receiver, driving him backward, and ripping the ball from his hands. As it spun backward, down lineman Dominic Bailey dropped on top of it to complete the turnover. James Pearce Jr. got a pair of sacks on the day to sneak his way into the Volunteers’ career Top Ten list. John Slaughter also grabbed his first career interception on the Miner’s last drive to end any chance of avoiding the shutout. The pick came on the third double pass play of the day from UTEP, and was caught at almost the same spot as McCoy’s interception in the first quarter. Freshman Boo Carter also had a good game on defense and special teams. He led the team with half a dozen tackles and averaged over 20 yards per punt return on the day.
Overall, the offensive numbers were not great for the visitors. They averaged 4.1 yards per pass play, and barely over half that per run. The Miners did win the time of possession battle, holding the ball for over 33 minutes, but Walden’s 2023 Austin Peay team was better, controlling the ball for over 39 minutes in 2023. UTEP was moderately successful on third down, but also ended two drives failing to convert a fourth down, and missed field goal attempts of 49 and 52 yards.
The last missed field goal was mostly a miss due to some excellent defensive plays. After converting a 3rd-and-10 with a 19-yard pass, the Miners were taking their first down snap from the UT 23-yard line. Tennessee sniffed out two straight plays, dropping a pass play for a 1-yard loss before knifing in on a run for a 2-yard loss. Then James Pearce Jr. job, attacking upfield at the overmatched UTEP left tackle before swiping at his arms and getting to his inside shoulder. Quarterback JP Pickles, one of three Miners to throw passes in the game, could feel the pressure, but couldn’t get away as Pearce wrapped him up for a 9-yard loss. The subsequent kick from the right hashmark had more than enough leg, but the kick doinked off the upright and fell into the endzone.
The offense was slow to get going, but exploded once they broke the 0-0 deadlock. It was, of course, Dylan Sampson who got the game rolling for UT’s offense. After the clock turned to the second quarter, Sampson took a handoff from shotgun, followed behind the right side of the offensive line, and shifted his way, keeping his feet clean, as he ran upright into the endzone for his record breaking 22nd touchdown of the year, once again breaking a Gene McEver nearly 100 year old record for total touchdowns in a season and has scored more points in history than any other Volunteer player.
The rushing offense was the straw which stirred the UT drink. Dylan ended the day with 11 carries for 77 yards and a score, plus a pair of catches for 25 yards. He sat out most of the game as Peyton Lewis rushed for 46 yards and two scores, and Cam Seldon came in to run for 44 yards and a score. Khalifa Kieth also got some carries, breaking a nice 23-yard run to bring his season rushing total to 100 yards. Tennessee ran nearly 40 times on the day for nearly 250 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava started 2-of-6 for 14 yards and a sack, including missing deeps shot to Senior Bru McCoy which would have been a 90+ yard score and Squirrel White which could have been a nearly 60-yard touchdown, and Tennessee ended up punting each of the first three drives. Nico was too reminiscent of Joe Milton’s 2023 style of play with the misses, overshots, and nervous feet while taking sacks. But he settled in, and went 15-of-17 for nearly 200 yards and four passing scores the rest of the night, while also breaking out a great 29-yard designed QB run. Bru McCoy, despite being missed on an early massive scoring opportunity, still found the endzone twice, his first double score game in college, and tight end Ethan Davis and receiver Squirrel White each snagged a touchdown of their own. No pass catcher reeled in more than Bru’s four catches or 37 yards, but Nico completed passes to eight different receivers, seven of which had at least two catches, before giving way to back up quarterbacks.
The box score looks really good for the team, but the slow start and missed throws are still concerning. Seeing Nico failing to connect with his receivers for long touchdowns is something he wasn’t doing the first three games of the season. Those first couple games he was dropping the ball into his receivers’ hands, hitting them in stride, and making the good timing throws. As said before, his game of late is too reminiscent of Joe Milton from last year. Not scoring in the first half is a trend for this UT team the last month and a half. That needs to stop, because they have a chance to make the College Football Playoffs.
Tennessee had a very lucky Saturday Indiana fell headfirst into an Ohio State Buckeye buzzsaw to lose by three touchdowns, Ole Miss got beaten by massive underdog Florida, and Oklahoma earned a very convincing three touchdown win over the Alabama Crimson Tide despite OU only having one SEC win previously. Even Auburn may have helped UT’s case by edging out Texas A&M, a team who came into November with a sterling SEC record, but did not win a single conference game the whole month. Even considering the Vols’ loss to Georgia last week, it was to a team now cemented into the SEC title game against Texas or A&M. The Arkansas loss still stings, but the Razorbacks only losses have come to ranked teams so far this season, and Ole Miss is the only team to have a runaway win over them. If Arkansas can upset Mizzou while Tennessee gets a convincing to dominant win over Vanderbilt, UT has a good chance to slide into the at large spots for the playoff bracket.
Next week, Tennessee will travel to Nashville to play against their longest tenured rival, the Vanderbilt Commodores. Vandy is dangerous this year, and a loss will destroy any playoff hopes the Volunteers have.