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Tennessee Vols Shut Out North Texas Mean Green 24-0 in Ugly Affair

By Caleb Calhoun

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The Tennessee Vols football team moved to 6-4 with an ugly win against North Texas Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium. The Volunteers pitched a shutout.

Alvin Kamara rushed for two touchdowns and 127 yards on 15 carries while Jalen Hurd added another 72 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, and the defense pitched a shutout as the Vols won a hideous game against North Texas Saturday.

Despite being favored by 42 points, Tennessee led the 1-9 Mean Green only 17-0 at halftime and was held scoreless in the third quarter.

Joshua Dobbs had only 136 yards passing and three yards rushing while going 15 of 23 for no touchdowns and an interception before he was pulled in the fourth quarter for Quinten Dormady after Kamara’s second touchdown run put the Vols up 24-0.

Dormady was three of five for 36 yards.

Tennessee had far too many issues in the passing game during the first half, as they had the ball three times in the second quarter in North Texas territory and came away with a grand total of three points after building a 14-0 lead early in the second.

Dobbs clearly looked like he was still dealing with injuries, as he too often turned down easy chances to run with the football and tried to force passes in there. It looks even worse when you consider that North Texas has the 117th ranked pass defense in college football this year and by far the worst defense in FBS.

The bright spot for Tennessee, though, was its own defense. North Texas spent the second half milking as much clock as possible, and while the secondary still struggled on some plays, the front seven was as dominant as ever.

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The Mean Green were held to under 200 yards total in the game.

Tennessee took the opening drive off of a North Texas pooch kick down the field and took a 7-0 lead, but they had to punt on their second offensive possession from the North Texas 35-yard line.

The Vols took the 14-0 lead on their third possession off a one-yard Jalen Hurd run at the start of the second quarter, and two possessions later, Medley nailed a 34-yard field goal.

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It was the first noon game all year for the Vols, and Butch Jones stressed all week the importance of keeping everybody focused.

It appears Jones failed. The fans and the players both came out incredibly lethargic and remained that way the entire game. But how can you blame them after surviving South Carolina last week and Missouri on the road next week? Who’s going to get up for North Texas at noon?

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The Vols won an ugly game but moved to 6-4 and now can get ready for Missouri.

And they had better improve if they want to beat the Tigers.

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