The game had fizzled out after an exciting start – the early promise of an upset in front of a record-setting crowd of 156,990 gathered to see a famous racetrack play host to the “Battle at Bristol” giving way to a blowout.
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There a whole lot of people in attendance for Virginia Tech and Tennessee’s collision at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee.
“I don’t know if you can really ever prepare for something like this until you get here with the crowd noise and everything going on”, he said. Midway through the third quarter, Dobbs ripped off a 31-yard run to break Jimmy Streater’s previous school mark of 1,374 rushing yards by a quarterback.
After a slow start Tennessee tapped into its “hunt the ball” preseason mantra and forced five turnovers, with one coming on special teams. The Vols simply didn’t make many of those explosive plays through the air a year ago, and it cost them.
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. Thanks to a red zone fumble and a pick-six the Hogs opened up a 13-0 halftime lead, and the lead was set to move to 23-7 with 11:30 to play in the game. Meanwhile, Micah Abernathy broke the UT single-game record for fumbles recovered after scooping up three turnovers. Virginia Tech had to protect the ball better than they did last week.
Josh Dobbs accounted for five touchdowns and the Vols looked like the SEC title contenders many expected them to look like last week in their home opener after a 45-24 domination of the Hokies.
Unfortunately, the Vols suffered an injury at linebacker to Darrin Kirkland Jr.
Tennessee will need a better showing against the Hokies on Saturday.
Jalen Hurd ran for 99 yards on 22 carries. After a fierce defensive possession featuring two sacks, a long Dobbs run put the Vols back in scoring territory.
UT is coming off of a 20-13 win over Appalachian State in its season opener on September 1.
204-28: Virginia Tech’s first-quarter domination was reflected in the box score. It took some time to get going against Liberty, but it was the first game of the season. Dobbs hit Jauan Jennings on a fade pattern on the next play and Tennessee was on the board 17 seconds into the quarter. There might be some issues to workout for both offenses – especially in the passing game with sight lines and such – that could drag scoring down a bit, which tends to favor the team getting points when there’s a double-digit spread. Dobbs hurdled his way down the sideline for 40 yards to get out of the hole, and then finally got a pocket and threw another bomb to Malone. The Hokies had one first down.
It’s a night that the fans – more than 150,000 of them – won’t forget.
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The current attendance record for college football is 115,109, set September 7, 2013 when Notre Dame met Michigan at Michigan Stadium. “Congratulations to Tennessee because they played hard and deserved to win”.
