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.