In a 20-10 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Tennessee football showed lots of mental toughness. The Volunteers had a culture change against MSU.
This is the type of game Tennessee football traditionally loses. Whenever an opponent makes a quarterback switch at halftime, that quarterback always turns into a star. See Treon Harris replacing Jeff Driscol for the Florida Gators back in 2014. They are also always the type to blow a two-score second half lead. Just go back to the BYU Cougars game earlier this year.
Also, if they ever commit early turnovers, they are never the type of team to respond. And when their starting quarterback goes down, they never have their much-maligned backup who was benched earlier in the year make the key plays to win the game.
These are element of the 1998 national championship team, not a Tennessee football program that has been a complete wreck throughout this season. They did everything they usually do to make you think they would blow this game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, and they didn’t blow it.
Such a win for a team that was 1-4 and entered the game with no FBS wins, two home losses to Group of Five programs, and losses of 29 and 31 points to Power Five programs, had to demonstrate a dramatic culture change. And it required a ton of mental toughness in the process.
Let’s start with the opening offensive drive. The Vols got a stop against the Bulldogs and then drove the ball into the red zone. But Brian Maurer threw an interception on a fade pattern, blowing a scoring opportunity.
This is a Mississippi State team that wins games by dominating the turnover battle, and this is a UT team that loses games by losing the turnover battle. So they wouldn’t come back. But they did. On the very next drive, the Vols got a key sack and forced a three-and-out.
So they got the ball back and drove 60 yards for a touchdown. Then, to prove they were a different team, as Mississippi State was driving to score, Kenneth George Jr. intercepted a Tommy Stevens pass on 1st and 10. All of a sudden, this was a different program.
Maurer later threw another red zone interception and was also knocked out of the game on that drive. All Tennessee football did was have Trevon Flowers intercept another pass from Stevens, which spotted them a 10-3 lead with a halftime field goal.
Jeremy Pruitt’s team responded twice. But they weren’t done. After Maurer went out, Jarrett Guarantano came in. He made one deep throw to set up another field goal, but the Vols largely never trusted him to make a play and kept it on the ground. Late in the game, up 13-3 and trying to run out the clock, they got a great punt and pinned Mississippi State on their own 10-yard line.
But with just over 12 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Pruitt’s plans to run out the clock took a turn for the worse. MSU scored a touchdown on a 90-yard drive that lasted less than four minutes, and in the process one of Tennessee football’s best defensive players, Henry To’o To’o, was knocked out of the game with a targeting penalty.
At this point, the game was 13-10. And the Vols needed offense. They got a few nice runs to get it to midfield. But on 3rd and 6, they finally needed Guarantano to make a play. And that’s when he came through. Guarantano hit Tim Jordan on a check down for a first down, allowing them to run more clock. Then he hit Tyler Byrd for a touchdown.
Once again, with everybody expecting them to lose, the Vols managed to come through with a big play. Their backs were against the wall, and they came through every time. That’s a dramatic culture change for this program, which has been expecting to lose.
Whomever they turn to next at quarterback is up for debate. But what’s clear is that Tennessee football turned a corner with this win. They showed they could withstand adversity and respond to it. Pruitt and his staff deserve a lot of credit for that, so even with just a 2-4 record, they proved a lot in this matchup.