Tennessee plays Virginia Tech during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, in Bristol, Tenn. “This group hasn’t, but as a staff, we’ve been at some big venues”. If Tennessee’s offense is going to be effective, there must be big improvements by the line.
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They will stand on sidelines littered with famous former players, high-profile coaches and celebrities as ESPN cameras record every minute for prime-time coverage.
It all started to fall apart for Virginia Tech on the first play of the second period when quarterback Jerod Evans, who lost a pair of fumbles in last week’s win over Liberty, lost the ball on a muffed exchange and it was recovered at the 5 by Tennessee’s Micah Abernathy, his first of three fumble recoveries in the game. That would shatter the NCAA single-game record of 115,109 set in 2013 at Michigan Stadium for a Michigan victory over Notre Dame.
Quarterback Joshua Dobbs came into the season as an All-Southeastern Conference candidate.
Dobbs and running backs Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara combined to run for 2,657 yards and 30 touchdowns a year ago, even if Tennessee’s offense hardly looked the part of an SEC contender in its opener against Appalachian State, needing overtime and a fortuitous fumble recovery in the end zone by Hurd to escape with a 20-13 win. On the same drive, Dobbs connected with wide receiver Josh Malone – one of the Appalachian State game’s heroes – for a 38-yard touchdown pass, tying the game.
“These teams are going to pull in here in no time, and I think they’re all going to feel that anticipation of making history”, said Smith. “. We’ve got to be ready for a physical ballgame”.
Bristol will be back to vehicle racing, but have already announced at least one other football game slated to go down at their venue this month- ETSU and Western Carolina University will play there September 17th.
Game Pick, Virginia Tech +11.5: I like the Hokies in this one. The Hokies converted 6 of 13 on third down, while the Volunteers were just 3 for 13. Tech held the Flames to 160 yards, with Liberty’s longest play going for only 15 yards.
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A strong defensive effort alone won’t win tonight’s game, not with a star-studded Bob Shoop-coached Tennessee defense on the other side of the field capable of slowing down the Hokies. To win this game the Vols need to open up the playbook after a vanilla opener, and that includes running Dobbs. All at an exorbitant markup, I’m sure.
