Rapid Reaction: Tennessee crushes Kentucky in tune-up for Georgia showdown
Considering how the month has gone, the Tennessee Vols might be sad to turn the calendar from October into November. The Vols left October in style, easily handling Kentucky 44-6 to move to 8-0 on the season and set up next weekend’s matchup at Georgia.
While the Tennessee offense is usually the attention-getter, the defense certainly held up its end of the bargain against a Kentucky team that scored 42 points and gained over 600 yards against UT a year ago in Lexington. Saturday, the Vols intercepted 3 of Will Levis’ passes and sent Kentucky’s offense off the field routinely on 3rd down en route to the rout.
Meanwhile, on offense, Hendon Hooker passed for 3 touchdowns and 245 yards. Jalin Hyatt caught 2 TD passes, giving him a Tennessee single-season record of 14. Jabari Small added the 3rd TD catch. Cedric Tillman was back in action for the first time this season, but had a quiet game (4 catches for 22 yards, although UT didn’t miss a beat.
Meanwhile, the Vols also went ground heavy when the mood struck, with Small and Jaylin Wright each approaching 100 yards on the ground.
Tennessee opened the game with a 5-play, 75-yard scoring drive, the last 55 yards covered on a Hooker pass to Hyatt, who was open on a blown coverage down the right sideline. Chase McGrath’s extra point made it 7-0 Vols with 13:33 left in the opening quarter.
After the teams traded punts, Kentucky answered with a 9-play, 71-yard drive that ended in a 3-yard Chris Rodriguez touchdown run. Tennessee blocked the extra point, and Kentucky would come no closer than the 7-6 score with 4:44 left in the opening quarter.
Tennessee responded with a 15-play drive, including 13 runs. Twice, Kentucky got the Vols to 4th down, but UT went up-tempo and converted both plays comfortably. UT finished the drive on the first play of the second quarter with a 2-yard Princeton Fant run to extend their lead to UT’s edge to 13-6 after the extra point was missed.
After a UK 3-and-out, the Vols scored again on a 77-yard, 8-play drive, completed with a 1-yard Jaylen Wright run. Kentucky had a promising drive inside the UT red zone, but a 3rd down pass to Dane Key was deflected and intercepted by Juwan Mitchell, who returned the interception to midfield. To end the half, UT took a deflected Kentucky punt and converted a 35-yard drive in a pair of plays, the latter another long Hooker to Hyatt pass, this one covering 31 yards to extend UT’s halftime edge to 27-6.
After a 29-yard field goal from Chase McGrath in the third quarter, UT reached the end zone again on an 8-yard rushing score by Hooker, making it 37-6 with 3:58 still remaining in the third quarter.
Tennessee will face 8-0 Georgia in Athens next week, in a game with significant and immediate College Football Playoff implications (as well as being the de facto SEC East title game).
Kentucky fell to 5-3 and will play next weekend at Missouri.