RECAP: Vols bring life to Death Valley, beat Tigers 40-13

Without star wide receiver Cedric Tillman and starting left tackle Gerald Mincey, Tennessee got off to a fast start and never looked back, beating LSU at home, 40-13.

Tennessee’s kickoff coverage has been fantastic all season, and it paid off in a big way on the first play of Saturday’s game. LSU’s returner fumbled the sky-high kick, and walk-on defensive back Will Brooks recovered the ball at LSU’s 27 yard-line.

The Vols needed five plays to score, as Jabari Small punched it in from the one-yard line to put UT up 7-0 fewer than two minutes into the game.

Tennessee’s defense forced a three-and-out, punted, and JUCO transfer Dee Williams returned the punt for 58 yards to give the Vols offense another short field. It was announced before the game that Williams would make his season debut after spending part of fall camp and the first of this season on the sideline due to a shoulder injury.

Unfortunately, the offense couldn’t convert this chance into six points — with a Hendon Hooker pass going for eight yards on first down and two Small runs for no gain leading to a Tennessee field goal.

LSU’s first effective drive of the game came with the Tigers already down two scores. QB Jayden Daniels drove his offense 73 yards all the way down to the Tennessee 14 yard-line, but UT’s defense held the Tigers to a three-yard play on fourth-and-four, which was the defense’s first of three fourth-down stops in the game.

Bru McCoy caught two passes for 37 yards as the Vols marched back down into LSU territory, but the Tiger defense once again held Tennessee to three points. The Vols took a 13-0 lead into the second quarter.

LSU needed seven plays to move the ball 20 yards on their drive that started at the end of the first quarter and leaked into the beginning of the second quarter, but Tennessee’s defense came up huge again with a stop on fourth-and-one. Heupel went for the jugular on the Vols’ first play from scrimmage after the fourth-down stop, as Hooker hit Jalin Hyatt perfectly in stride for Hyatt’s first TD of the game on a 45-yard bomb down the far sideline.

The two teams exchanged punts before the Tigers score their first TD of the game. After Paxton Brooks executed a perfect coffin-corner punt that Jimmy Holliday down at the Tigers four-yard line, LSU went 96 yards in 12 plays on a drive capped off by a one-yard Josh Williams TD run. Tennessee’s defense gave up two third-down conversions and Kamal Hadden got called for one of his numerous holding calls, all of which helped LSU into the endzone.

Chase McGrath doinked a 50-yard FG on the Vols’ next drive and gave LSU the ball at their own 33-yard line with 40-ish seconds left in the half. But the Tigers managed one 22-yard pass before two McDaniel’s incomplete passes forced LSU into another fourth-down situation. Brian Kelly elected to go for it instead of kicking the field goal, and Byron Young came up with one of his 2.5 sacks of the game to give the Vols the ball back.

With 17 second left, Hooker hit McCoy for another 32 yards on third-and-10 that put Tennessee in range for another McGrath FG that put the Vols up 23-7 at halftime.

Hooker and the Tennessee offense came out in the second half with a eight-play, 76-yard, touchdown-scoring statement drive. Squirrel White made an appearance with a run, and Hooker had a 26-yard run on a designed QB draw right before he hit Jalin Hyatt for Hyatt’s second touchdown of the day on a beautifully executed slant route.

The Vols outscored the Tigers 14-0 in the third quarter, as Hooker connected with McCoy again for a 48-yard pass. Tennessee picked up a fourth-and-one at the LSU 25-yard line and scored three plays later on a Small five-yard run.

LSU’s offense was nowhere near proficient enough to overcome a 30-point, fourth-quarter deficit, though it did add one more score with 11-ish minutes left in the game.

Tennessee’s defensive front-seven had another impressive performance. Last week, it was the defensive line, specifically, Omari Thomas and Tyler Baron — this week, it was Byron Young, Aaron Beasley, and Roman Harrison. Young had 2.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles-for-loss, Beasley tied for the team-lead with eight tackles and added 1.5 TFLs and Harrison added seven tackles, a sack, a QB hurry and 1.5 TFLs. The defensive backs weren’t great all game, but Trevon Flowers intercepted a ball at the end of the game as the Tigers were threatening for a overall meaningless touchdown on the final drive of the game.

Offensively, Hooker hit 17 of his 27 passes for 239 yards and those two TDs to Hyatt. Overall, McCoy led the team in catches and yards, with seven and 140, respectively. The rushing attack had its best performance of the season, considering context of opponent quality, as Hooker, Small, Jaylen Wright, White and McCoy accounted for 48 rushes, 264 yards and Small’s two TDs.

Tennessee welcomes Alabama to town next weekend in what will be the biggest game for the Vols in, well, a long, long time.