Tennessee football: 3 takeaways from Vols win vs. Southern Miss

Tennessee football defeated the Southern Miss Golden Eagles 24-10 Saturday. Here are three takeaways from the Volunteers’ win.

Tennessee football ended a four-game losing streak to improve to 4-5 on the year with a homecoming win over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. The Vols won amidst the depth of anti-Butch Jones sentiment in Knoxville.

Despite using two quarterbacks and only leading10-3 at halftime, the Vols build a huge lead in the third quarter. And the kept control the rest of the game.

The win assures an undefeated record for Tennessee in non-conference play. However, they remain winless in SEC play.

Here are three takeaways from the end to Tennessee football’s four-game losing streak.

1. Defense won the game

Tennessee football’s defense has been playing its heart out for a while now. But the Vols consistently managed to fail enough on offense to the point that the defense would have no choice but to give up. That didn’t happen here.

Thanks to two huge plays by the defense in the third quarter, Bob Shoop’s unit made the effort to actually win the game. As a result, it worked out perfectly. And they stopped a quarterback sneak on 4th and 1. The defense ended Tennessee football’s huge losing streak. But there was another storyline on the other side of the ball.

2. The Vols’ offense only has a running game.

As good as the defense was, Tennessee football’s offense was awful in the passing game. An injury to Jarrett Guarantano ruined the Vols, and Will McBride clearly wasn’t ready. As a result, the Vols were often a wreck on offense.

However, the running game came back to life. John Kelly scored two touchdowns, and amidst a slew of injuries, the offensive linemen and running backs did what they could. That’s enough to warrant them a level of credit. But it’s not enough for our final takeaway.

3. Fans are done with the program under Butch Jones.

The most hilarious part of Tennessee football’s win is the way people affiliated with the university attempted to defend the lack of fan support. Attendance to some was reported as high as 95,000. However, it was massively empty in the student section and didn’t look good in other parts.

That should be a sign that John Currie needs to fire Butch Jones as soon as possible. The longer he waits, the longer Tennessee football is in trouble. Apathy won’t stop growing. And that’s a problem for the university and everybody involved.