Former Vols Lead Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl

Peyton Manning, Malik Jackson and Britton Colquitt carried the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl with an AFC Championship win over the New England Patriots.

Peyton Manning was Peyton Manning. He threw two touchdown passes and had no interceptions despite his aging.

But Manning was not the only former Tennessee Vol showing out in the AFC Championship game as the Denver Broncos advanced to their second Super Bowl in three years.

The most well-represented team in the playoffs for Tennessee football players had Tennessee football players make a huge name for themselves.

Manning is the guy everybody in Knoxville was obviously rooting for, and he did his job, going 17 for 32 for 176 yards with those two touchdowns.

But the best part is that he did have help…from other former Vols.

Britton Colquitt was honestly the star of the game among former Vols, punting seven times for an average of 47 yards and nailing four punts inside the 20-yard line in the process. By the way, those punts inside the 20 are the only reason he didn’t average 50 yards a punt.

But then came Malik Jackson. The Broncos’ defense was once again the star of the show, rendering a hall-of-fame quarterback useless because of their pass rush.

And once again, the heart of that pass rush was Jackson.

Jackson did only have two tackles in the game. But he had three big hits on Brady and hurried him all night. It was the push Jackson got at the line of scrimmage that allowed Von Miller to dominate Brady all night.

So Denver is now going to the Super Bowl. But they owe a huge debt of gratitude to the University of Tennessee, because if it were not for players who came from that football program, they may not have gotten out of the divisional round of the playoffs.

Congratulations to the three former Vols going to play in the Super Bowl.