Tennessee defensive end Derek Barnett (9) was up to his old tricks of harrassing the opposing quarterback Saturday. Barnett sacked Vanderbilt's Kyle Shurmur for a safety as the Vols shellacked the Commodores, 53-28, at Neyland Stadium.
photo by Dennis Norwood
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Somewhere, George Cafego is dancing in the graveyard.
Tennessee unleashed a record-setting performance before 98,327 fans at Neyland Stadium while crushing bitter rival Vanderbilt, 53-28, Saturday night.
“I do think this is one of the best stories in all of college football, with a young team coupled with a resilient group of seniors and how far we’ve come,” Vols coach Butch Jones said. “I’m just proud of them.”
Linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin backed up Jones’ assertion of how well the Vols have played in a majority of games this sason.
“I think he’s right if you just look at who we have played and how we have played them,” Reeves-Maybin said.
“Iowa (could be) in the playoffs and we handled them earlier in the year (TaxSlayer Bowl in January). We took Alabama, Florida and Oklahoma to the fourth quarter. They are all top teams this year. It proves we can play with anybody.”
It marked the fourth time this season the Vols scored 50-plus points. The scored 59 against Bowling Green in the season opener and put up 55 against Western Carolina and 52 at Kentucky. It was the most points for Tennessee against Vanderbilt since 1994 when it demolished the Commodores, 65-0, in Nashville.
The Vols scored 62 against Vandy in 1993.
“I looked at the stats,” Jones said, “and out of the top 10 defenses in the country, we’ve faced four of them going into this game. When you look at where we’re at in terms of total offense, points per game, being able to run the football, they’ve come a long way.”
Cafego, the former Vol All-American player and long-time coach, lived to beat Vandy in any fashion imaginable and as bad as humanly possible. Cafego would rather smack the Commodores than eat and Vandy week was his Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year rolled into one.
A sample of how the Vols (8-4, 5-3) crushed the Commodores (4-8, 2-6):
Cameron Sutton returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter to give the Vols a 13-point lead. It was Sutton’s second return for a score this season and the first time since Terry Fair scored twice in 1978 a Tennessee player did that.
The junior from Jonesboro, Ga., had an 84-yard touchdown return against Kentucky five weeks ago.
Sutton now has 625 returns yards, breaking the long-standing single-season record of 457 yards set by Bobby Majors in 1969.
“My front ten do an amazing job with just creating alleys and lanes for me to run through,” Sutton said. “Without them, it’s not possible.”
The Vols’ six returns for touchdowns lead the nation.
Quarterback Joshua Dobbs regained his old running form, piling up 93 rushing yards, giving him a school-record 695 single-season yards that eclipsed the mark of 593 set by Jimmy Streater, who played for the Vols from 1977-79.
Dobbs also threw a pair of touchdown passes, both to Von Pearson, covering 17 and 5 yards.
The Vols, winning their fifth straight game, finished with 331 rushing yards, added 192 through the air and wound up with 523 total yards in the convincing win. The Vols had 399 rushing yards in the season opener against Bowling Green.
Vols place-kicker Aaron Medley got into the record-shattering spree, kicking a career-long 47-yard field goal in the second quarter when the Vols extended their lead to 27-14 at halftime. Medley also connected from 26 and 32 yards and has made 11 of his last 12 attempts.
It wasn’t a record, but Todd Kelly Jr.’s interception at the Vols’ 8 with 23 seconds left in the first half kept the Commodores from closing the scoring gap against Tennessee, which has won 31 of the last 34 meetings in the 109-year-old series – the Vols are 75-29-5 all-time against Vandy.
“They were making a lot of plays the first half and we couldn’t get to halftime yet before making adjustments,” Kelly said. “So I just told the defense that someone needed to step up and it happened to be me.”
Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason felt Kelly’s interception and Sutton’s punt return was a gigantic momentum boost for Tennessee.
Without those plays, Mason said, “I think it’s a different ballgame altogether. We (were) starting to get our footing. I believe when you go back and you look at those two big moments in the game, they were game-changing.”
Tennessee closed with five consecutive victories for the first time since 2007. That same year was the last time the Vols won eight regular-season games.
The Vols will now await their postseason bowl destination.
The bowl-game site and opponent are of no concern to the Vols.
“Any bowl,” defensive end Derek Barnett said. “Just let us know where the field is at and we are ready to play.”
In another poor Vanderbilt season, among many, many others, the Commodores came into the game allowing an average of 18 points per game. Tennessee put up 17 points in the first quarter and got touchdowns on the first Dobbs pass to Pearson, Dobbs’ 6-yard run and Medley’s first field goal.
Holding a 13-point advantage, the Vols turned the contest in a blowout with a 16-point third quarter.
Barnett sacked Vandy quarterback Kyle Shurmur in the end zone for a safety, Jalen Hurd bolted 14 yards for a touchdown and Dobbs found Pearson for another throw-and-catch score that stretched the lead to 43-14.
Barnett has a sack in six of his last seven games.
Tennessee outgained Vandy 202 yards to 15 in the quarter.
Hurd broke a 48-yard run and Medley salvaged the drive with his third field goal less than two minutes into the fourth period.
The sophomore tailback finished with 120 yards, average 6.3 yards per carry while pushing his season total to 1,158 yards, 12th best all-time and most since Arian Foster gained 1,193 in 2007.
Junior transfer Alvin Kamara had a solid game, picking up 99 yards on the ground and was the Vols’ leading receiver with 52 yards on two receptions.
The Vols came within 8 yards of having three backs gain 100 yards.
“It’s difficult to (contain us),” Dobbs said. “We do a great job finding ways to get us into space and letting us go make plays. It’s great.”
Vandy linebacker Darreon Herring lauded the Vols’ ground game, but pointed out their passing game was also effective throughout the game. Herring had a pretty good idea why that happened.
“Just blown coverages on all ends, the linebackers and the defensive backs as well,” he said. “Just blown coverages. Things we went over in practice, we didn’t execute well.”
Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb rushed for 149 yards on 21 carries and quarterback Kyle Shurmur threw for 209 yards and three touchdowns to Trent Sherfield, Steven Scheu and Dallas Rivers, covering 12, 3 and 8 yards, respectively.
SCORING
Vanderbilt 7 7 0 14 – 28
Tennessee 17 10 16 10 – 53
First Quarter
TENN – Von Pearson 17 pass from Joshua Dobbs (Aaron Medley kick), 11:32
TENN – FG Medley 26, 6:01
VAND – Darrius Sims 7 run (Tommy Openshaw kick), 4:50
TENN – Dobbs 6 run (Medley kick), 2:01
Second Quarter
VAND – Trent Sherfield 12 pass from Kyle Shurmur (Openshaw kick), 14:50
TENN – FG Medley 47, 12:57
TENN – Cameron Sutton 85 punt return (Medley kick), 4:36
Third Quarter
TENN – Safety, Derek Barnett sacks Shurmur in end zone, 9:47
TENN – Jalen Hurd 14 run (Medley kick), 7:33
TENN – Pearson 5 pass from Dobbs (Medley kick), 3:41
Fourth Quarter
TENN – FG Medley 32, 13:17
TENN – Joe Young 8 run (George Bullock kick), 8:06
VAND – Steven Scheu 3 pass from Shurmur (Openshaw kick), 4:01
VAND – Dallas Rivers 8 pass from Shurmur (Openshaw kick), 0:22
Attendance: 98,327 (Season average: 100,584, highest since 2008 101,448)
YARDSTICK
VAND TENN
First Downs 21 27
Rushes-Yards 36-202 52-331
Passing Yards 209 192
Comp-Att-Yds 15-34-1 15-25-0
Plays-Total Yds 70-411 77-523
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-0
Punts-Avg 7-46.6 2-44.5
Penalties-Yds 9-84 6-47
INDIVIDUALS
RUSHING – Vanderbilt: Ralph Webb 21-149, Dallas Rivers 4-21, Darrius Sims 3-19, Trey Ellis 1-19, Josh Crawford 1-3, Kyle Shurmur 6-minus 9; Tennessee: Jalen Hurd 19-120, Alvin Kamara 16-99, Joshua Dobbs 11-93, Joe Young 4-18, Jayson Sparks 1-3, Team 1-minus 2.
PASSING – Vanderbilt: Shurmur 15-34-1 209; Tennessee: Dobbs 13-21-0 140, Quinten Dormady 2-4-0 52.
RECEIVING – Vanderbilt: Trent Sherfield 6-85, Caleb Scott 2-61, Stephen Scheu 3-22, Rivers 2-15, Latevius Rayford 1-14, Nathan Marcus 1-12; Tennessee: Kamara 2-52, Josh Smith 4-50, Von Pearson 3-40, Hurd 4-35, Ralph Abernathy 2-15.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)
Place-kicker Aaron Medley kicked three field goals, including a career-best 47-yarder in the second quarter to help Tennessee rout bitter rival Vanderbilt in Knoxville on Saturday.
photo by Dennis Norwood