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Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols 17-13 win over Kentucky

By Caleb Calhoun

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - NOVEMBER 09: A.J. Rose #10 of the Kentucky Wildcats runs with the ball against the Tennessee Volunteers at Commonwealth Stadium on November 09, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - NOVEMBER 09: A.J. Rose #10 of the Kentucky Wildcats runs with the ball against the Tennessee Volunteers at Commonwealth Stadium on November 09, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images /

It took a strong second half for Tennessee football to beat the Kentucky Wildcats. Here are five things we learned from the Volunteers’ 17-13 victory.

It came down to the wire, but Tennessee football was able to hold on for a huge win over the Kentucky Wildcats. The Vols are now in the midst of their first three-game winning streak ever under head coach Jeremy Pruitt, and they moved to .500 with a 17-13 win in Lexington after a horrendous 0-2 start.

UT fell behind 13-0 in the first quarter, but they did not allow UK to score the rest of the game. They held off Mark Stoops’s team on a goal-line stand late in the game, and then Jarrett Guarantano ran for the first down on the next drive to allow the Vols to run out the clock.

With the win, Rocky Top improves to 5-5 and needs to beat either the Missouri Tigers on the road or the Vanderbilt Commodores at home to reach bowl eligibility. Meanwhile, Kentucky falls to 4-5 but faces Vanderbilt, UT Martin and the Louisville Cardinals to close out the season with Vandy being the only road game.

Simply put, Pruitt’s team needed this game more than Stoops’s team, and they held on. Now, a bowl game is in sight for both teams. And the Vols have a shot at one of the best turnarounds ever for a team.

They only gained 296 yards total offensively, but three straight fourth down stops on defense, two second-half touchdown passes and a blocked extra point made the difference. The Vols did what they needed to do to win.

Eight years ago, the same year it was the last time the Alabama Crimson Tide and LSU Tigers ironically met in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, the Vols missed a shot at a bowl game under second-year head coach Derek Dooley because they lost at Kentucky when Joker Phillips ran a receiver at quarterback. This time, they kept their bowl hopes alive in a similar game.

Perhaps this program is indeed turning a corner. This was a huge triumph for the Vols in so many ways. And it’s the perfect way for them to go into the bye week. Here are five things we learned from Tennessee football’s first road victory this season.

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