For the first time since Lane Kiffin, Tennessee football will have a winning season with a first-year head coach, this time with Josh Heupel. The Vols clinched it with a 45-21 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Senior Day. It was their regular season finale and second straight win on the year.
UT jumped out to a 7-0 lead with a pick-six on Vanderbilt’s opening offensive drive. They eventually turned that into a 24-0 lead and never looked back. It was their third straight win in the series with Vanderbilt, the longest streak for them in this series since winning six straight from 2006 to 2011.
With the win, Tennessee football finishes the regular season 7-5 and 4-4 in the SEC. Vanderbilt finishes its first season under new head coach Clark Lear 2-10 and 0-8 in the SEC. Here are three things we learned from another dominating win by the Vols.
5. Wild big plays open and ended the first half.
It’s worth mentioning that this altered the score of the game. We mentioned a pick-six. Vanderbilt had the ball first and was driving towards midfield, but Theo Jackson picked off a pass and ran it back the other way for a touchdown to spot the Vols a 7-0 lead. That’s the third pick-six of the year for Rocky Top.
However, this wasn’t the biggest highlight of the first half. The Vols were heading into halftime up 24-0 and, with them set to receive the ball in the second half, were destined to take complete control. Vanderbilt quarterback Mike Wright completed a 56-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass to Will Sheppard, which made the game somewhat interesting.
There was also a huge punt return by Velus Jones Jr. that should have set up another Tennessee football touchdown. However, UT was stopped on that drive, and that actually leads to the next thing we learned from this game.