Tennessee football dominated improved to 2-0 on Saturday night by dominating NC State 51-10 in the Duke’s Mayo Classic in Charlotte.
The game was every bit as one sided as the final score looked as Tennessee out gained NC State 460-143 and by a whopping 249-39 on the ground. As those numbers indicate, Tennessee completely dominated the game on both lines of scrimmage and the Wolfpack never got into a rhythm.
“It looked like we were just getting knocked into the backfield a lot,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said postgame. “And I said this all week, their defensive line was our biggest concern, particularly defensive tackles. And we think those guys are really good players and we just did not block them up front the way that we have to, to run the football.”
Offensively, Tennessee leaned on its ground game and played more 12 personnel than they have at any point prior in Josh Heupel’s tenure.
It was a good not great performance from Nico Iamaleava who completed 16-of-23 passes for 211 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions while adding 65 yards another score on the ground. But it was the way Iamaleava responded to the two interceptions that most impressed his head coach.
“He responded extremely well to adversity,” Heupel said. “I think that’s one of the things we really haven’t seen from him yet. Really proud of his demeanor and being ready to come play the next play independently. Which is what you have to do as a quarterback.”
Following the game, RTI’s Ric Butler and Ryan Schumpert broke down Tennessee’s dominant performance in the Queens City. Check out the RTI Instant Reaction here.
