Tennessee only made one play vs. Georgia Tech's option, but it was a game-winner
Tennessee began the 2017 campaign much like it did the one from a year ago, testing their fans’ precious tickers with yet another heart-stopper.
The Volunteers didn’t take their first lead until double overtime and somehow managed to survive a Georgia Tech rushing attack that gashed them from the opening kickoff up until the game’s final play. Only then did their defense make a stop.
Yellow Jackets quarterback TaQuon Marshall, who set school records at his position with 44 carries for 249 yards, finally made a poor decision operating coach Paul Johnson’s triple-option system and was stuffed on a two-point conversion that would’ve been the game-winner. Instead, UT escaped Monday with a 42-41 victory that defies all logical explanation.
Marshall was nothing short of sensational up until that snap, running for 5 touchdowns and frustrating the Vols at every turn.
According to the box score, Tech rushed for a stunning 535 yards on a ridiculous 86 attempts and held the ball for 41:27 of the contest’s 60 minutes in regulation. It was a clinic on how to operate Johnson’s death-by-a-thousand-cuts scheme.
However, the Jackets coughed up a pair of fumbles, the second of which robbed them of an opportunity to make it a two-score game late in the fourth quarter. On top of that, their bend-but-don’t-break defense eventually broke, as new stars for a relatively anonymous Tennessee offense emerged from the shadows right in the nick of time.
Quarterback Quinten Dormady, who averaged a measly 2.6 yards per pass in the first half, finished 20-of-37 for 221 yards with 2 TDs and 0 interceptions.
Running back John Kelly flashed at times in 2016 as the third-stringer behind Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara, but he announced himself as one of the best ball carriers in the SEC with 128 yards and 4 monster scores on 19 rushes.
Perhaps the most unlikely hero was wideout Marquez Callaway, who caught 4 passes for 110 yards and 2 touchdowns. The receiving corps was already down Josh Smith prior to kickoff, and then Jauan Jennings left early with an injury of his own. But Callaway played much bigger than his 6-foot-2, 199-pound frame and nabbed every 50-50 ball.
It took a while, but the Volunteers appear to have answers for the departed Joshua Dobbs at QB, Hurd and Kamara at tailback and Josh Malone at receiver.
The defense is a different story, though. No Derek Barnett at end. No Jalen Reeves-Maybin at linebacker. No Cameron Sutton at cornerback. Even if Reeves-Maybin and Sutton missed a lot of time last year, their replacements were mediocre at best.
If not for the two takeaways, then UT never would’ve had a chance in this one. The first fumble was forced by linebacker Daniel Bituli and recovered by fellow linebacker Cortez McDowell, while the second was knocked free by nickelback Rashaan Gaulden and pounced on by safety Micah Abernathy (below). Each noticeably changed momentum.

Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Vols coach Butch Jones was rewarded for his conservative approach in OT. He kicked extra points after each TD, apparently never thinking about going for two.
Conversely, Johnson trusted his freshman field general to make one last play from the 2-yard line. It was a gutsy move — not to mention cheered by every writer in the press box on deadline — yet the gamble with Marshall failed to pay off in the end.
A year ago in the season opener, Tennessee trailed Appalachian State 13-3 in the fourth quarter before finding a way to force overtime and ultimately triumphed in the extra period. Jones and Co. pushed their record to 5-0 before running out of miracles in a double-OT defeat to Texas A&M. It ended up being the first of three straight losses.
Ranked 25th in America coming into this game, the Volunteers struggled with another unranked foe and looked bad for prolonged stretches.
On the one hand, UT deserves tons of credit for never giving up and seemingly always fighting their way back once things start spiraling out of control. Nobody can suggest that the kids in orange and white don’t play hard for Jones.
Still, on the other hand, the Vols never make it easy on themselves. This was their 20th overtime game in school history, which is the most of any program at the FBS level. Amazingly, they’ve gone to OT at least once every year dating back to 2007. Jones, currently in his fifth year on Rocky Top, is now 3-3 when having to play bonus football.
In a surprise, highly touted Jarrett Guarantano got zero snaps at the game’s most important position for Tennessee.
Jones didn’t announce a starter leading up to game time, although he hinted at SEC Media Days in July that he might try some sort of two-passer rotation. With Dormady so ineffective at the outset, it was a head-scratcher not to see Guarantano.
Now that Dormady’s first career start resulted in a comeback win of epic proportions, his confidence should only grow going forward. Previously a complementary player, Kelly quickly established himself as a workhorse. Callaway looks to be a big-play artist in his own right and, if nothing else, a quality No. 2 to Jennings once he’s back healthy.
Luckily for the defense, Tennessee opens conference play with Florida in Week 3. The Gators are offensively challenged at this point.
However, the Volunteers will face some quality offenses after their bye in Week 6. If there’s a positive on that side of the ball, it’s that they won’t see another flexbone team like Georgia Tech the rest of the way and can burn this game tape.
You are such a mediocre writer, like the Vols defense as you say. You down the Vols the entire time and praise GT, who by the way lost. I can’t wait to read the rest of your crap this season downing Tennessee about everything they do.
I feel like you might end up on one of his “I hate John Christ” articles lol. I understand your point and I agree with not liking his negativity, but we we won the game and now we just need to keep proving him wrong.
It was a good game. By the way – on September 16, both the Tennessee defense and the Florida offense will show up to play football, SEC style. The respective adjectives “mediocre” and “offensively challenged” are simply not relevant.
You are such a mediocre reader. I suppose I should’ve been more complimentary of UT’s defense and completely ignored the fact that it gave up 535 yards rushing, right? Clearly, the Vols are on their way to a national championship with that unit.
Yes, the defense deserves some scrutiny, but I do not think they are as bad as you suggest here. It will help them out greatly if our offense does not wait until the 3rd quarter to really get moving
They also made at least two plays considering there were two fumbles. You likely were not seriouse with the “only one play” in the title though.
Come on Crist admit it. Jones stole your girlfriend or lunch money at some point in your pathetic life (I’m going with lunch money since you’re such a dbag I doubt you had a gf worth stealing). You’re an embarrassment to an already embarrassing sports media industry.
Oh and ps, UT won
Yes, that’s why I picked Tennessee to win the East last year. Pathetic life? If you think you hate me now, you should see the woman I’m married to. You should see the house I live in. But by all means, keep being angry at strangers on the internet. I’m sure it’s led to a royal existence for you.
Dude. You make fun of Butch Jones for getting defensive so easily, but yet you display the exact same behavior by reacting to comments, like this. I actually thought the article was fair. Tennessee’s defense was porous after the first two drives and must be addressed in earnest. But, it does NOTHING for your credibility when you are getting so easily offended and spouting off with random posters in the comments.
I’m not offended. I’m laughing at such an ignorant comment. And I’m swimming in credibility from my peers in this business, so if you think I spend one second worrying about a comment thread from the most combative fan base represented at SDS, then you’ve misread the situation entirely.
Well that’s not what it looks like when you are bragging about how peachy your life is like a jaded teenager. You never let Butch slide when it comes to getting offended so easily during his pressers, but that is exactly what you do. You can say you weren’t offended, but your actions say otherwise. You think any other notable writer is going to squabble with fans in the comment section. Never.
I think we all can see some sarcasm in your comments about Jones. I think the reason he didn’t go for two is because GT couldn’t stop us at that point and why not just keep playing. GT might have won if they would have kicked the extra point and kept playing. Glad Jones made the smart decision! Also, was it a head scratcher not see Guarantano?? I think not! Jones mad the right call there too. Obviously he knows a lot more about coaching than you do.
For what it’s worth, Booger & McElroy agree with you. Said we’d gotten to the point where GTech couldn’t stop us, and they’d take our athletes over GTech’s athletes.
Also said that Paul Johnson probably also realized this, and that’s why HE went for two.
LB’s I’m pretty happy with, 23 tackles by Bituli on top of a forced fumble, Jumper had 18 tackles and Cortez McDowell with the FR. we won’t know what this defense is made of until we play Florida and UGA, that option may have shredded us but it’s so unique you can’t really gather a good takeaway from it. Tackling was mostly better that last year and two turnovers forced is positive. Although GA Tech is untangled, it’s a bit of a stretch to put them into the same bag as our struggles with App St last year.
I loathe Colton Jumper. I’ve had to watch this jabroni get beat and miss tackles for years now, and I’m sick of it. 18 Tackles on a night where they ran the ball for 500+ yards is nothing to hang your hat on. Just means they got to his level all night long.
Would have been a lot more yards if he wasn’t there to make those tackles. It’s not 2015 anymore, the hate for Colton Jumper should have expired over a year ago.
Uhhh… did you watch the game last night? He whiffs on tackles on the regular, and flat out doesn’t have the speed to keep up most RBs or WRs. He’s slow. He takes poor angles. He misses tackles. He’s not good.
BBQ watch the last play. He makes the tackle even if Darrell Taylor isn’t in position. I watched him swarm to the ball and he was in on plenty of tackles. Just because he sucked in 2015 doesn’t mean he sucks now, and he hasn’t sucked for a long time. There’s a lot of issues on our defense, but Colton Jumper isn’t one of them. In fact, our LB’s played better than any unit on our defense. Maybe you are the one that should have watched the game.
Dude… I can’t stress this enough. Colton. Jumper. Is. Terrible. Anyone with a set of eyes knows this.
Glad to see the SEC get off to a 3-0 start against the ACC, and hoping Auburn can make it 4-0 this weekend. Every team had positives to take away from their games, even A&M (that was the potential no. 1 draft pick that beat them). OK, maybe not Florida so much. Mac has a huge uphill battle with that offense, but with the roster down 10% he might deserve a mulligan. I doubt we’ll see the 2nd place team with 4 losses this year. That said, every team also showed areas of concern. Bama looked dominant, as usual, but Hurts’ passing may bite them in the butt at some point. Week 1 is often a mixed bag, but Ws are Ws. The East-West crossover games should be very interesting this year. This week’s games with Clemson and Notre Dame should tell us a lot more about the league.
Congrats to the Vols on an exciting win. Seeing Paul Johnson have to swallow a tough L like that just warms my heart.
Warms my heart too!
I wasn’t happy with most of the DL play. I expected a lot more push into the backfield before that option could get rolling. Because of the poor DL play last year I am concerned but really need to see a couple games vs common offenses.
Thanks Mountain Dog. Everybody has stuff to work on, but getting out of week 1 with a win should not be scoffed at. I don’t understand how yall opened as a 6ish point underdog to the Irish. I think yall have a much better team than them, even without Eason.
I hope that Vegas is right and the Dawgs lose!
Oy vey…. Colton Jumper is trash.
The title of this and the statement “Georgia Tech rushing attack that gashed them from the opening kickoff up until the game’s final play. Only then did their defense make a stop.” We stopped them the first two drives of the game right before they stopped running the option for the rest of the game until the last play of the game and we stopped them. Does our D need more work? yes, Did we score just as much as Georgia Tech did but in 18 minutes as they did in 42 minutes? yes Did we create ball disruption ? yes did they? no. Other than the title of this article being wrong and tons of other stuff John Crist writes I’m having a great day, but I’m sure he will say my day isn’t half a great as his day? lol GoVols