Joey Aguilar connects on deep ball TD to Chris Brazzell, ties game vs. Vanderbilt
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Joey Aguilar has developed an incredible chemistry with wide receiver Chris Brazzell during his first season at Tennessee, and the duo connected yet again on Saturday afternoon to help the Volunteers stay with rival Vanderbilt.
With the 19th-ranked Vols trailing the 14th-ranked Commodores, 14-7, in the 2nd quarter in Knoxville, Aguilar found Brazzell on a 52-yard scoring pass that was both timely and beautiful. Aguilar dropped back on 2nd-and-6 from his own 48-yard line and fired a pass down the middle just before the Vandy rush got to him.
Brazzell, who had 8 touchdown catches this season but none in his past 3 games, finally found the end zone again. He was running free beyond the Vanderbilt secondary and easily hauled in the gorgeous pass from Aguilar, cruising into the end zone to tie the game at 14-14 with 10:34 left in the first half.
As the Tennessee football social media account wrote, the pass by Aguilar was indeed “right in stride.”
The latest Aguilar to Brazzell connection lit a fire under the Vols, who took a 21-14 lead a few minutes later. Tennessee came into Saturday’s regular season finale out of contention for a College Football Playoff spot, but the Vandy rivalry still means a lot as the Vols tried to get to 9 wins and end Vanderbilt’s faint Playoff hopes.
The long touchdown connection was certainly the start to doing just that.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
