The #8 Tennessee Volunteers were sitting in a good position to make the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoffs, holding the 9th seed going into the last weekend of football in November. UT, with a 9-2 record, needed to only beat Vanderbilt, a team against whom they had beaten five straight times, and no game closer than a 28-10 win in 2019, with Head Coach Josh Heupel boasting an average final score of nearly 48-16. The Vanderbilt Commodores, meanwhile, had gained a reputation as SEC Kryptonite, having taken top 10 Mizzou to overtime before losing, falling by only a field goal to top 5 Texas, and having upset #1 Alabama 40-35. Vanderbilt was no cakewalk, despite only winning a trio of SEC games in the previous five seasons.
Vanderbilt immediately put on their spoiler hats. They took the opening kickoff 100 yards for a quick 7-0 lead, forced a Dylan Sampson fumble on the Vols’ second offensive snap, then scored on a 7-play drive to take a 14-0 lead. Even after quarterback Nico Iamaleava had put Tennessee on the board with a scoring pass to leading receiver Dont’e Thornton Jr., Vanderbilt drove back with a field goal and a 17-7 lead. Tennessee then failed on a 4th down attempt, then Nico threw the ugliest interception of his career right after defensive back Jermond McCoy picked off Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia in the end zone.
But Tennessee stopped trying to sleepwalk through a game which had become a dogfight. Nico put on a clinic through the final 42 minutes of the game, going 15-of-21 for just under 200 yards and 3 more scores. He was hitting receivers in stride, connecting on a post route to Thornton for 86 yards and a score. He also put Tennessee ahead when he ended a 96-yard drive with a perfect pass to Miles Kitselman for an 18-yard score with less than 30 seconds remaining in the half, and threw a frozen rope on a great crossing route to Mike Matthews for a 14-yard score in the 3rd quarter.
Dylan Sampson, despite being held out of the endzone and fumbling on the opening drive, finished with a career high 178 rushing yards. A dubious streak also remained alive, with Tennessee being 4-0 in games where Dylan Sampson has fumbled, with all the fumbles occurring in the first quarter. But Sampson’s day ended with him clutching at his hamstring after a big run, a concern for the team with aspirations of fighting for a national title. Thornton also ended up finishing the game injured and on the sidelines, but still had 118 yards on three catches and his two scores. The Vols as a whole also improved to 28-2 under Heupel when rushing for over 200 yards, with Nico and DeSean Bishop adding 19 carries for over 100 yards to Sampson’s production.
The defense also woke up after the first quarter ended. After Vanderbilt converted their first three 3rd down attempts to enroute to their 1707 lead, the Commodores went 1-7 the rest of the day against the previously best ranked third down defense in the SEC. Diego Pavia finished 8-of-17 for barely over 100 yards, padding his passing stats with some garbage time yardage and his only passing score. Tennessee even got a boost from the special teams, with a downed punt at the 4-yard line leading to a safety from Tyre West, as well as the aforementioned interception from McCoy.
There is still a lot of work to be done. On his interception, Nico completely threw to the wrong part of the field. Thornton was streaking down the sideline, and Nico appeared to throw a deep post route. Tennessee also got banged up, with Squirrel White joining Sampson, being injured on the same play, and two offensive linemen getting shaken up during the game. The Vols were also penalized an abysmal 13 times for over 100 yards. While UT have a few weeks to get healthy before the playoffs begin, the consistently lopsided penalty yardage is an ugly mark which has plagued Rocky Top under Coach Heupel.
While it was an ugly win, it was a win nonetheless. Vanderbilt had fought hard against many top-10 teams, so a dysfunctional start should not cost the Vols in the playoff rankings. It was a much better game than #7 Georgia’s 8 OT struggle to fight off unranked Georgia Tech, and far better than #2 Ohio State being upset by unranked rival Michigan, or #17 Tulane losing to unranked Memphis by double digits, or last week’s results with #4 Penn State barely sneaking past unranked Minnesota, or unranked Florida beating then #9 Ole Miss, or unranked Oklahoma beating then #7 Alabama.
The fact is, Tennessee is angling for a shot at hosting a playoff game. The win was good enough to move up should anyone (ahem, Ohio State) drop. And if Georgia loses in the SEC title game, it is conceivable that Tennessee could leapfrog them in the CFP rankings. Despite a few losses on their resume, a little chaos in college football has benefited Tennessee, and should secure a spot for them in the playoffs.