RECAP: VOLS BREAK 15-GAME LOSING STREAK, BEAT BAMA 52-49

It’s time to go fishing, but not for marine life. It’s time to go fishing for the Tennessee goal posts that better end up the Tennessee River.

The Vols beat the Tide for the first time in 15 years, 52-49.

Hendon Hooker connected with Jalin Hyatt for FIVE, yes FIVE touchdowns, and the Vols rushed for 182 yards en route to the victory.

Once, again, Tennessee went with its NASCAR-style start to the game, scoring three TDs in the first 15 minutes of the game.

The Vols held the tide to 12 total yards in five plays and ended up with a short field, thanks to a punt from Bama’s 20-yard line and a 12-yard return from recent special teams’ jolt in punt returner Dee Williams.

Hendon Hooker hit Bru McCoy for 11 yards, scrambled for 20 yard of his own and hit and Jacob Warren for a 12-yarder that put the Vols inside Bama’s 10-yard line. Jabari Small scored his first TD one play later.

The Tide responded with a touchdown to tie up the game on its second offensive possession of the game. It appeared as if the reports of Bryce Young’s injury had been greatly exaggerated, because he went 3-4 and accounted for 57 of Alabama’s 71-yard scoring drive.

On Tennessee’s next possession, Ramel Keyton, playing in place of Cedric Tillman, was targeted twice, caught one for 11 yards and evoked 15 more yards as Terrion Arnold got popped for a defensive holding penalty. Jaylen Wright’s 11-yard run proceeded Hooker’s first TD pass to Jalin Hyatt of the first half on a 36-yard pass that couldn’t have been placed any better.

Alabama shot multiple toes off its foot on its next drive, with three-straight penalties to move the start of the drive to Bama’s own four-yard line. Young narrowly evaded a safety in the midst of three incomplete passes, and then the Tide added a delay-of-game penalty for the cherry on top of Nick Saban’s sundae, made of nothing but Bama blunders and the years taken off Saban’s life by those miscues.

A 33-yard punt gave Tennessee another short field, with the ball at Bama’s 35-yard line. Three plays later, and Hooker hit Hyatt for the duo’s second TD-scoring connection of the game. This was a beautifully designed and executed play.

Tennessee took a 21-7 lead late into the first quarter, and Bama’s drive that finished the first quarter and started the second went 12 plays for 73 yards, but the Tennessee defense forced an incomplete pass on third-and-goal at the Vols’ two-yard line. Nick Saban didn’t follow the recent trend of coaches going for it on fourth down, basically fearful of the Vols’ offense ability to turn that change of possession into points on the other end. The Tide’s three points made it a two-score game.

The Vols’ next drive fizzled into a Paxton Brooks punt, but Alabama muffed the punt, Christian Charles recovered it and the Vols scored three players later on a Vols-under-center, fullback dive play to Princeton Fant.

That made it a 28-10 game midway through the second quarter, but Bama scored a TD on its next drive and left UT about four minutes to put point on the board before halftime. The Vols drove 40 yards in nine plays but but turned it over on downs when Hooker and Keyton couldn’t connect on a fourth-and-six at the Bama 35 yard-line. Alabama went 39 yards on seven plays and added another field goal that left the UT offense just 36 seconds before halftime. A Joe Milton heave didn’t result in a TD, and the Vols went into halftime up 28-20, having been outscored 13-7 in the second quarter.

The Vols got the ball after halftime, but turned it over on downs with an incomplete pass to Warren on a fourth-and-2 play at Alabama’s 42-yard line. Bama scored three play later and converted the two-point conversion to tie up the game.

Jalin Hyatt score his THIRD touchdown of the game on 60-yard dime from Hooker to give the Vols the lead back.

McGrath missed the extra point, which kept Bama with a one-point lead and an offense that’s scored on four-strait drives.

Alabama made it five-straight drives with a 12-play, 75-yard TD drive that included an Alabama false start, a Jeremy Banks offsides penalty, a 10-yard Bama holding penalty on third-and-goal at Tennessee’s one-yard line and a De’Shawn Rucker penalty where he got thrown to the ground by the WR but still got flagged. That gave the Tide the ball at the two-yard line, which Jahmyr Gibbs punched in for six points.

At this point, Bama has a 35-34 lead, but the Vols’ defense survives Hooker’s first interception of the season by forcing a punt. Tennessee ran two plays before Hooker hit Hyatt four their FOURTH touchdown connection of the game.

Tennessee converted the two-point conversion to make it a seven-point lead on the same shovel pass to Princeton Fant we saw last week.

The Vols’ DBs inability to make tackles in space has been an issue all season, and a Jahmyr Gibbs 30-yard catch-and-run put Bama at Tennessee’s 33 yard-line. An Omari Thomas, 14-yard sack had the defense back in business. But a defensive backfield bust left Tide WR JoJo Earle standing there with no orange jersey in sight, and Young hit him to get the 14 yards from the sack back plus more, to put Alabama at the five. It took all four downs, but Bama scored to tie the game back up at 42.

On the next possession, Small and Hooker fumbled the option on the mesh, and Alabama ran it in for a touchdown that put Tide back ahead.

Alabama was called for two pass interferences on Tennessee’s next drive while the Vols used 11 plays to go 75 yards capped off by Hyatt’s his FIFTH touchdown of the game.

McGrath hit this XP, and Alabama got the ball at the 25 yard-line in a 49-49 game with three-ish minutes left. Tennessee’s defense held Bama to a 49-yard attempt, which Alabama missed.

Hooker used an 18-yard pass and a 27-yard pass to Bru McCoy to get Tennessee into position for a 40-yard attempt. McGrath hit the game-winning attempt that delivered the Vols’ their first win over Alabama in 15 tries.

Hooker finished the game 21-30 for 385 yards and five touchdowns. Hyatt had the game of his life and is now the tied as the SEC’s all-time leader for receiving touchdowns in one game. He had six catches (five of which were scores) and 207 yards.

Alabama had a season-high 17 penalties for 130 yards.

We don’t give a damn about the whole state of Alabama.