And Tennessee raced to the checkered flag.
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On Saturday evening, as anticipated for almost three years, the Battle at Bristol between No. 9 Tennessee and Virginia Tech officially reigned in the highest attendance for an American football game in history: a record 156,990 fans were on hand to watch the game.
In between performing some of his most popular songs, Chesney noted he had been looking forward to returning to the region and playing for the big game, which is a match-up of the University of Tennessee Volunteers and Virginia Tech Hokies. But a Virginia Tech fumble at its own five-yard line led to Tennessee’s first score, and that proved to be a theme of the night.
Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones ran for 99 yards last season in the Buckeyes’ 42-24 win at Virginia Tech.
Tennessee won the Battle at Bristol by establishing a powerful rushing attack (239 yards), swarming defense, and taking advantage of Virginia Tech mistakes, such as the aforementioned fumbles and 101 penalty yards.
“What a spectacle. It will never be replicated it will never be duplicated”, Jones said.
The long-anticipated event drew a crowd of 156,990 fans and broke college football’s single-game attendance record, surpassing the 115,109 fans who witnessed Michigan and Notre Dame at Michigan Stadium in 2013.
After Peyton Manning assisted with the coin toss, the first half was simple.
It still appears to be boom-or-bust for Tennessee’s offense and the concerns with the offensive weren’t totally abated, but the Vols capitalized on Virginia Tech’s turnovers and Dobbs was a playmaker with his legs.
Of course, in many ways the stage will only get bigger for Tennessee.
Dobbs finished with 106 yards on 14 keepers and completed 10 of 19 pass attempts.
A spectacle nearly 20 years in the making, the “Battle at Bristol” saw the Hokies (1-1) take a 14-nothing lead, thanks to 7-yard touchdown toss from Jerod Evans to Sam Rodgers, and the next drive after, a 69-yard touchdown scamper from Travon McMillian. It has lost nine fumbles in two games this year after coughing up only seven all of last year.
When the teams switched ends of the field to start the second quarter, momentum swung to Tennessee.
The turning point of the game came when Abernathy recovered a fumble on the Virginia Tech 5 in the opening play of the second quarter.
UT (2-0) scored on the next play as Joshua Dobbs floated a pass to Juan Jennings on the right side of the end zone, bringing the score to 14-7 and kick-starting a 45-3 run en route to victory lane.
The Vols were on the board. Again they all stayed with Dustin until he was carted off to the medical area inside the speedway.
The Vols tied the game on a attractive 38-yard connection between QB Joshua Dobbs and WR Josh Malone with 9:42 left in the second quarter.
According to oddsmakers from online sports book Bovada.lv, the Volunteers are 11-point favorites versus the Hokies while the over/under now sits at 52 points.
Another short field aided the Volunteers on their next possession when Virginia Tech punter and Abingdon product Mitchell Ludwig shanked the attempted kick, which measured out to 11 yards. The Vols led 17-14.
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Dobbs landed the kill shot with a 27-yard run in the fourth quarter to make it 38-17, inspiring Tennessee fans to chant “SEC, SEC”.
