It wasn’t pretty, but the Tennessee Volunteers did the only thing that really mattered on Thursday night: they earned a victory over Appalachian State.
That’s not to say that the Vols’ performance was perfect. It clearly wasn’t. Tennessee shot itself in the foot in the first half with costly turnovers and penalties. The Mountaineers took full advantage of the mistakes and simply outplayed the Volunteers for most of the first half.
However, UT responded with the poise of a champion in the second half. The Volunteer defense came up with a crucial interception on App State’s first drive in the third quarter, which led to a field goal. After the defense forced another punt, Tennessee marched 92 yards in six plays, resulting in a 67-yard TD strike from Joshua Dobbs to Josh Malone to knot the score at 13. Although the Volunteer defense did give up some yardage on the final drive, it came up with crucial plays when it needed to, including a tackle in the backfield on second-and-one in the closing seconds that took Appalachian State out of field goal range.
While most fans and media will look at this game in a negative light, there are certainly some positives to takeaway from this contest. The Tennessee defense held a veteran Mountaineer offense that ranked 15th nationally in yards per play last year to just 3 of 13 on third down conversions. More importantly, it limited App State to just 292 yards – the exact same total that Clemson gave up it in its meeting with the Mountaineers last season.
Does that mean that Vols are going to compete for the National Championship this season like Clemson did?
Probably not.
However, those numbers do indicate that Tennessee played a much better game than people realize.
But, what does this contest mean in the grand scheme of things?
Simply put: this victory will only help the Volunteers going forward. Sure, they won’t earn any “game control” points with the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, but they didn’t do anything to hurt themselves, either. With games remaining against Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, Tennessee has plenty of opportunities to impress the committee down the road… provided that it doesn’t stub its toe somewhere along the way.
This win could actually be a blessing in disguise for UT, which fully expects to compete for the SEC crown this season. The near miss proved to the team that it must get better in order to win the conference. Yet, the way that the Vols won this contest proves that they know how to finish strong – something that plagued them in their four losses last season.
