Tennessee football 2019 recap: Ranking Vols eight wins for season

8. Chattanooga Mocs

45-0

Saturday, Sept. 14

It was Tennessee football’s first win of the year, and it came at the lowest point. With a ton of excitement entering Jeremy Pruitt’s second season, the Vols entered this game 0-2 and with interest in the program at an all-time low. The week before, they had given up a late pass to the BYU Cougars to lose in overtime.

That game had obviously followed their loss to the Georgia State Panthers. One thing we can say in favor of Pruitt about this game, though, is his kids were clearly still excited to play. After all, they went up 21-0 in the first quarter, including a blocked punt for a touchdown, and they forced five turnovers on the day. So there was a lot of energy.

Jarrett Guarantano threw three touchdowns, and Jeremy Banks had two interceptions just before being dismissed from the team. Nigel Warrior and Kenny Solomon each got a pick as well, while Brandon Johnson ran back the blocked punt for a touchdown. So lots of different players got in on the action in the win.

However, it meant nothing. UT beat an FCS team in the Chattanooga Mocs, and at the time, this just meant they wouldn’t fall to 0-12. One silver lining that came out of this was the return of Daniel Bituli, who had missed the first two games of the season. That ended up playing a big role going forward when it comes to this turnaround.