RECAP: Tennessee trounces Tigers, 66-24

The Vols needed a bounce-back game after last week’s loss to Georgia, and they got it against Missouri on Senior Day at Neyland Stadium.

It seemed like Tennessee was off to the races after the first drive, as the Vols’ defense forced a three and out for Mizzou then went 91 yards on seven plays for the game’s first touchdown — a Jabari Small scamper for 10 yards.

The Vols forced another punt of Missouri’s second drive, but then turned it over on downs on fourth-and-four at the Tigers’ 27-yard line, as Hendon Hooker took his first sack of the game.

Missouri turned in its first TD of the game following the Vols’ foible, going 68 yards on nine plays and taking up nearly five minutes of game clock.

The teams ended the first quarter tied 7-7, but then the Vols rattled off three TDs in the second quarter — a Jaylen Wright three-yard run, a beautiful, 19-yard throw and catch from Hooker to Fant and a Hooker 14-yard option run.

The Tigers put up 10 points of their own, making the score 28-17 at halftime, and kept the Vols scoreless on Tennessee’s final drive before the break and on its first drive after the break.

Missouri responded with an eight-play, 85-yard drive touchdown-scoring drive of its own that cut Tennessee’s lead down to 28-24. The Tiger QB, Brady Cook, found seams in the Vols’ defense all game, and had an eight-yard scramble for a first down that kept the TD-scoring drive alive before he eventually tossed a 38-yard ball to Dominic Lovette for the score.

The Vols needed just three plays to bump back up their lead, as Heupel dialed up a Jalin-Hyatt-disguised-as-a-fullback play that went for a 68-yard score.

Missouri got the ball back, and we gotta shout out the Neyland Stadium crowd here, because the Tigers got called for not one or two but three pre-snap, false-start penalties on a six-play drive that went just 17 yards before the Tigers were forced to punt.

The Vols got the ball back at their own 31-yard line, and traveled 57 yards on two Dylan Sampson runs before a Tiger pass interference penalty set Tennessee up at the two-yard line.

Princeton Fant caught his second TD pass of the game as he slipped out into the far sideline flats for an easy score.

The defense stepped up again on the Tigers’ next drive, holding Mizzou to a five-yard run and two incomplete passes before another Missouri punt.

UT extended its leaded to 49-24 eight plays later, seven of which were runs to either Jaylen Wright or Sampson, on a drive capped off by a one-yard Wright TD. At two minutes and 20 seconds, that was Tennessee’s longest scoring drive of the game.

Tennessee’s 21-7 third quarter basically put the game out of reach for a Missouri offense that hadn’t scored more than 22 points in an SEC game before today.

With about eight minutes left, a Tigers’ fumble on a failed fourth-down pitch play, to Knoxville-native Elijah Young, that Doneiko Slaughter recovered really sealed the deal. Tennessee’s offense didn’t do much with the turnover, but the drive ended in a Chase McGrath 46-yard field goal that made the score 52-24.

I mentioned it earlier, but the Vols’ defense struggled with Cook’s run game. He led the Tigers with 14 carries and 113 yards.

Hendon Hooker finished his day in the middle-ish of the fourth quarter, and Joe Milton came in and ran for 16 yards on the first play and then hit Ramel Keyton for an absolutely effortless, spot-on, 41-yard touchdown pass.

Hooker’s day: 25/36 for 355 yards and three TDs. He also had seven carries for 54 yards and a score on the ground, too.

Both Jalin Hyatt and Bru McCoy eclipsed the 100-yard receiving mark, with Hyatt going for seven catches, 146 yards and two scores, while McCoy caught nine passes for 111 yards. Cedric Tillman didn’t play, but the broadcast stated it was just for precautionary reasons given the rain and likely iffy field conditions. Hyatt’s day put him over the 1,000-yard receiving mark for the year with two regular season games remaining.

The Vols combined for four TDs in the rushing game and 273 yards, with freshman Dylan Sampson leading the way with 98 yards on just eight carries.

Milton tossed ANOTHER dime to freshman Squirrel White down the far sideline for 58 yards, and White woulda scored had he not tripped over the three-yard line. Sampson finished off the drive with a TD run as Rick Neuheisel whined about how the Vols shoulda kneeled and ran out the clock.

The Vols put up 728 yards of total offense, while the Tigers nearly hit the 400-yard mark themselves.

Tennessee cut down on the penalties while back in the friendly confines of their home stadium — committing just seven penalties for 59 yards. Mizzou really struggled with the crowd noise in the second half and finished the game with 14 penalties for 120 yards.

The Vols travel to South Carolina next week to face the 6-3 Gamecocks. Tennessee and South Carolina games tend to be testy, and I figure the Vols are in for a fight at Williams-Brice Stadium.