Tennessee opened the game with a bang and didn’t look back as the Vols coasted to a 45-14 victory over UTSA Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium.
The Vols led 31-0 at halftime and despite a less convincing second half the Roadrunner never threatened as Tennessee earned a bounce back victory.
Here’s four quick takeaways on Tennessee’s victory.
The Start Tennessee Was Looking For
After a disappointing loss at Florida and a week of fans calling for Josh Heupel to replace Joe Milton III with Nico Iamaleava, the Vols’ offense needed to get off to a good start to stymy the boo birds or any other negativity from the announced sell out crowd at Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee did just that. On the first play from scrimmage, Joe Milton III kept the ball on a read option around the left end. It was wide open and looked like an easy first down. Then Bru McCoy delivered a phenomenal block which propelled it to an 81-yard touchdown run on the Vols’ first offensive play.
Tennessee’s strong start didn’t end there. The Vols’ defense forced a three-and-out, aided by a third-and-one false start, and immediately got the ball back to Milton and the offense.
The Vols’ offense threw a myriad of quick, short passes and went right down the field. Dylan Sampson’s 10-yard third-and-six touchdown run capped off a nine play, 62-yard touchdown drive which gave Tennessee a 14-0 lead.
While Tennessee made a special teams mistake to give UTSA the ball back after another three-and-out, the Vols held the Roadrunners scoreless on the drive and exited the first quarter with a two touchdown lead.
It was the start Tennessee needed to get its confidence up and quickly kill any upset talk.
Dominant First Half From The Vols’ Defense
Tennessee led 31-0 at halftime and it was a good performance from the entire team, as the score indicates. But it was a particularly strong half from the Vols’ defense.
UTSA’s offense is no slouch and while quarterback Frank Harris’ absence— amongst other offensive injuries— negatively affected the Roadrunners, it’s still an offense better than both Austin Peay and Virginia. Tennessee completely dominated the line of scrimmage and held UTSA to very limited success.
The Roadrunners had nine first half drives, eight if you don’t count kneeing the first half clock out, and went three-and-out four times, turned it over on downs twice and threw one interception.
UTSA not only entered scoring range just once in the first half but they crossed midfield just one time in the entire first half. The Roadrunners had more success in the second half but it was still a dominant defensive performance from Tennessee.
Tennessee out gained UTSA 359-98 in the first half and held the Roadrunners to just 319 yards for the entire game.
Lackadaisical Start To The Second Half
As good as Tennessee’s start to the game was, its start to the second half was nearly as bad. With a lopsided lead at halftime the Vols opened the second half with no energy allowing UTSA to dominate the third quarter.
The Roadrunners replaced quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger with Owen McCown at halftime and the move paid dividends. UTSA recorded just four first half first downs. They went four-for-four on third down conversions in the opening drive of the second half with the final being a three-yard touchdown pass capping off a 15-play, 75-yard touchdown drive.
Milton nearly threw a pick six on the first play of the ensuing drive and under threw an open Kaleb Webb on third down forcing Tennessee to punt after the three-and-out.
McCown and UTSA kept things rolling when the transfer quarterback found Tykee Ogle-Kellog for a 43-yard touchdown on the fourth play of the ensuing drive.
The Vols’ offense failed to find any rhythm in the third quarter after a dominant first half and while the Roadrunners never truly threatened again their 14-0 third quarter performance put a damper on Tennessee’s showing.
Nico Iamaleava Makes His Neyland Stadium Debut
Tennessee freshman Nico Iamaleava made his Neyland Stadium debut against the Roadrunner after not getting any action against Austin Peay two weeks ago.
Iamaleava played two drives in the fourth quarter. The Vols went three-and-out on the first drive largely because Dont’e Thornton dropped a pass that hit him between the numbers on first down. Tennessee ran the ball on the first two plays of his second drive before he was quickly sacked on third down.
When Tennessee jumped out to a 31-0 led it looked like the backup quarterback would get an abundance of run in the second half. But the lackluster third quarter kept Tennessee from making the move to Iamaleava until later.
Iamaleava finished the game zero-of-two passing and didn’t get nearly as much game action as Tennessee would have hoped, especially after the first quarter.
