Tennessee football: Vols top 10 greatest games in 2010s decade
9. Nov. 9, 2019
Tennessee Volunteers at Kentucky Wildcats
839. Final. 13. 833. 17
A big win over the Kentucky Wildcats at the beginning of the decade represented a huge turnaround for Tennessee football, and a big win over Kentucky at the end of the decade represented the same thing. The Vols did both things with Jim Chaney as quarterback.
In 2019, UT started the season 0-2 with home losses to the Georgia State Panthers and BYU Cougars. They then fell to 2-5. But Jeremy Pruitt’s second team reeled off two wins and three in four weeks to get to 4-5. That’s when this game happened.
With a sure win against the Vanderbilt Commodores to close the season, the task at hand was simple. Beat either Kentucky or the Missouri Tigers on the road to reach bowl eligibility, assuming that Vandy win. Well, in this game, Brian Maurer got the start. A UK team running a receiver at quarterback scored on the first two drives and went up 13-0 after a missed extra point.
Maurer could only get a field goal drive out of the first half. So in the second half, Jarrett Guarantano came in. Poor play got Guarantano benched after a 1-3 start, but he came in off the bench to lead them to all of their wins after that. This was his biggest test to prove his turnaround.
Guarantano directed two scoring drives in the second half, throwing touchdown passes to Marquez Callaway and Josh Palmer to put UT up 17-13. Then the defense stepped up. In the fourth quarter, they got three fourth down stops. The final one came after a Ty Chandler fumble, but the defense had a goal-line stand, getting two stops inside the two-yard line.
On the subsequent drive, Guarantano had a third down run to clinch the win. Tennessee football had a huge road victory over a quality team, and this all but assured them a bowl game. They would go on to beat Mizzou anyway, which made it better, but this win meant more since it was against a team with a better record and had a more thrilling finish.